Chile is set to invest $83m for road upgrades across Route G-21, also known as the Camino a Farellones, in the Santiago Province.

The total investment will include fund contributions from the Municipality of Lo Barnechea, various local ski centres, and mining and natural resource company Anglo American.

The Ministry of Public Works will receive bids for the improvement project between 7 March and 12 April 2013?.

Route G-21 is a 40km stretch that connects the city of Santiago with Farellones and Valle Nevado.

Scheduled to commence in 2014 and end by 2016, the construction will cover a section of Route G-21 that begins where the Avenida Las Condes links with Camino a Farellones and runs for 30km until the turn off to Valle Nevado.

The road currently has 40 hairpin turns along with a number of steep drop offs without any guard rails.

The new development project is expected to eliminate more than ten of the hairpin turns and install guard rails in several areas.

It will improve curves on the winding road through the Coral Quemado region, as well as construct four viewpoints.

Once completed, the project is estimated to significantly reduce travel time between Santiago and the region’s ski areas, including Valle Nevado, El Colorado, La Parva and Anglo American’s Los Bronces mine.

The current time of almost 1.5 hours that it takes to drive from Santiago’s eastern neighbourhoods to Valle Nevado will be reduced to less than one hour.

The road improvement will provide easy access to the Yerba Loca Nature Sanctuary.

A toll will be installed on the road before reaching the ski areas, with a fee that is estimated to be between CLP5,000 ($10.52) and CLP10,000 ($21).