On 20 April, President of the Republic of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, accompanied by the Minister of Transport, Natalia Abello and Vice President, Germán Vargas, inaugurated the Crespo Ring Road in Cartagena.
SICE has been responsible for carrying out all systems. These works will improve mobility and travel times between the centre and north of the city, besides being the first project of its kind performed within a marine environment in the country.
The project has a 1,000m tunnel whose electromechanical systems are designed, supplied, installed and commissioned by a consortium led by SICE, responsible for the project management.
Other systems to installed outside and inside include lighting equipment, ventilation, fire detection and extinguishing systems and ITS systems ( signalling, incident detection, SOS posts, CCTV, communications, user information).
The project scope also includes the control centre, where is received the information for management and control through the integrated SCADA system, not only of all mentioned systems installed, but also pumping systems, power control medium and low voltage and emergency power (plants and generators).
The construction of this new path from the north area to Cartagena is the first work of this kind performed in a marine environment in the country. With investments of over 160,000 million pesos (about €50m), it has generated nearly a thousand direct and indirect jobs.
The Crespo Ring Road has a total length of 2.5km and is part of the highway concession Cartagena – Barranquilla, under responsibility of the National Infrastructure Agency. This project is a vial solution that connects ‘Via del Mar’ and ‘Avenida Santander’ reducing congestion of vehicular traffic in the Crespo neighborhood, with a particular impact on mobility, quality of life, tourism and recreation in the area. Specifically, this tunnel aims at ensuring the smooth flow of traffic between the Historical Center and Cartagena north area, reducing by 40% the time of travel.
The implementation of this project allows to Cartagena de Indias to have a coastal modern space, similar to the ones on cities like Rio de Janeiro, Lima or Barcelona.
