One Year After Landslide, ‘Pacifico 1’ Highway Reopens 24 Hours Daily
Colombia’s national infrastructure agency (Agencia Nacional de Infraestructura, ANI) announced June 17 that the crucial “Pacifico 1” highway connecting Medellin’s southern suburbs to the Cauca River town of Bolombolo is now open 24 hours/day.
A 300-meters-long section of the existing two-lane highway– as well as an under-construction section of what eventually will become a four-lane divided highway — were wiped-out by a huge landslide at Sinifaná in May 2019.
The Medellin-based “Covipacífico” construction consortium that’s building “Pacifico 1” partially restored one of the damaged sections — enabling a limited reopening of the Sinifaná section — in December 2019.
Since then, continuing advances in restoration work now enable 24 hours/day operations in both directions on that section of the old two-lane highway, according to ANI.
However, routine, occasional closings for continuing construction work — as well precautionary closings triggered by landslide-threatening deluges — can be expected, ANI cautioned.
To date, restoration and landslide-prevention works include “installation of trenches, construction of drains, adaptation of terraces and the unblocking of the Sinifaná [river] gorge,” according to ANI.
