[sustran] Urban toll road battle in Santiago

[Christopher Zegras]

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Following is an update on an urban toll road battle in the south.

Courtesy of Chip News www.chip.cl

November 4, 1997
*
HEADLINE:  OPPOSITION GROWS TO COSTANERA NORTE
Community Reveals Flaws in Major Highway Project
KEYWORDS:  URBAN ISSUES; ENVIRONMENT
SOURCE:  CHIP NEWS
TEXT:  (Ed. Note:  Government officials announced Monday that
bidding on the US$313 million Costanera Norte highway project
has been postponed to Dec. 15 to allow time to hammer out issues
relating to property expropriation and the environment.
        The following story about the controversial highway project
was written by Lake Sagaris, a Canadian writer who works as a
correspondent for Business Week, U.S. Trade and The London
Times.  Sagaris lives in the Barrio Bellavista, one of the
communities that would be affected by the highway).
        Growing opposition from community organizations and
experts threatens to delay the Costanera Norte, the Ministry of
Public Works' (MOP) first major urban highway project and
concession that is supposed to join Lo Barnechea with Pudahuel
and points beyond, especially on the coast.
        The highway would start in Lo Barnechea, follow Kennedy
Avenue westward, then veer into the San Cristobal Hill, right
behind Channel 7 and other television studios located on the route.
It would cut through the Pedro de Valdivia Norte neighborhood,
cutting it off from the hill and creating a noise and air pollution
hazard, before continuing under the Bellavista neighborhood, and
then emerge and follow along the north side of the Mapocho River,
in Independencia.
        The ministry originally planned to have the project well
underway by September of last year, but opposition that began in
the Bellavista neighborhood and spread to the well-to-do Pedro de
Valdivia Norte neighborhood and the Central Market area known
as the Vega has paralyzed progress.  A legal writ filed by several
community organizations in April halted bidding on the project
and forced the ministry to submit an environmental impact study
to the Santiago environmental commission (Corema).
        In July, an unprecedented number of community
representatives used Corema's "citizen participation" sessions to
get more information from the project's proponents and to present
their criticisms, many of which stem from evaluations by expert
advisors.  For example, Juan de Dios Ortuzar, head of the Catholic
University's Department of Transport Engineering and a world
authority on transportation solutions, has participated in meetings
between the coalition and Ricardo Lagos, Public Works Minister, as
well as forums and panels.  Ortuzar says the project is "the
cornerstone for an approach to Santiago's transportation problems
that will clearly fail."  Ortuzar participated in an initial study
which found that the Costanera Norte would not be profitable for
its operator.  The government responded by including Kennedy
Avenue in the project, a move which angered Las Condes Mayor
Joaquin Lavin and many of the highway's potential users.
        Ignacio Santa Maria, an architect who has been involved in
urban planning in Santiago for over 30 years, says that the three-
km-long tunnel through the San Cristobal Hill and under Bellavista
will act as a strong dissuasive factor.  Santiago users just won't be
willing to confront a lengthy tunnel with two 90 degree angles and
a sharp dip downwards, he says.
        This year, opposition to the project has grown exponentially.
Neighborhood associations in Bellavista and Pedro de Valdivia
Norte formed the No Costanera Norte Coalition in March.  Since
then, membership has grown to 15 community and commercial
associations, representing more than 40,000 people in three
municipal areas:  Providencia, Recoleta and Independencia.
Grassroots opposition is based on four major concerns, which the
MOP has been unable to resolve:  destruction of green recreation
space, especially the San Cristobal Hill; massive air pollution that
would emanate from eight chimneys, impacting especially on the
Bellavista neighborhood; destruction of communities like
Bellavista, Tirso de Molina, Vega Chica and Independencia, by
destroying commercial activity in those neighborhoods; social
inequality, as the project would benefit drivers from the upscale
Las Condes and other neighborhoods, as well as housing and other
development projects both there and in Enersis' satellite city in
Pudahuel, at the expense of the vast majority of people who travel
by bus, taking double the time and at considerably more risk to
their health and safety.
        The project is also inconsistent with official policy to
decontaminate Santiago, since by generating more traffic it would
impact significantly on air pollution levels, especially deadly
ozone.  It is also inconsistent with transportation policy, which
gives a high priority to improving bus and Metro train
transportation.
        In recent months, environmental organizations like Renace
and the Political Ecology Institute have taken a growing interest in
the conflict, and have planned strong protests and legal actions to
follow the Corema's decision, now expected at the end of
November.
        The Latin American Observatory of Environmental Conflicts
has recently sponsored the publication of a book on the debate,
"Costanera Norte, What City Do We Want?," which will be launched
later this month.
        Among other irregularities, the MOP's spokesman, Fernando
Valderrama, says the ministry has not yet decided on the final
route for the highway and just recently began studies of measures
to assist hundreds of small business people and home owners and
renters who would be displaced, temporarily or permanently.
        The Supreme Court is expected to make a decision on the
first writ against the highway during the second half of November,
while Corema has until early December to approve, modify or
reject the project.

Courtesy of Chip News www.chip.cl


 Christopher Zegras       http://www.iiec.org                 /\   /^\
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