San Martin Roads

by Lisa Cortes

Family on a moto

I met with Sergio Alberto Martin Sosa, the head system analyst for Provincial Zone 4 in San Martin in the Chaco Province. He is in charge of the roads in the province. This includes three levels of roads:

- primary roads, including provincial routes 90, 7, and 3

- dirt roads

- gravel roads

Of the 2,643 kilometers of roads, only 8 percent are paved! The other 92 percent are dirt and gravel. Route 7 is provincial route that connects the province to another important area called Saez Pena, but at this time it is not paved. It is scheduled to be paved this July by a private company. Argentina always pays the private sector to construct and pave roads, while Sergio's crew is in charge of maintenance and the construction of dirt roads.

Route 7 is 44 kilometers and will cost 172,000,000 pesos to pave. Paving this route is important to Argentina because it connects the Chaco province to Saez Pena, an area rich in soy. Now when it rains it is impossible for trucks to use. Also, the route is often used by trucks from Paraguay transporting goods to Chile.

There are no tolls on the route, nor will there be after it is constructed. This is because there is a mercado comun (common market) contract between Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile. The contract ensures that transportation is free between the countries. The second reason is that it allows students in Chaco to attend the university in Seaz Pena and will help stimulate tourism.

The province of Chaco buys machinery for the roads with a percentage of gas taxes. For each liter of gasoline, 12 percent goes to Nacional Argentina and they then give 4 percent to Chaco. The percentage is based on Chaco's population of one million.