The Sagrado Corazón neighbourhood regained a road connection over the El Pucú stream with the opening of a bridge built to replace a crossing that had been closed. The structure stands at the intersection with Juan José Silva Street in the city of Formosa and was inaugurated on Thursday, July 30. The new crossing does more than restore traffic: it expands the corridor's capacity to receive freight vehicles weighing up to 25 tonnes.
The project responded to the deterioration of a bridge installed in 2015 as an immediate solution. Accumulated traffic, the passage of time and the action of water and waste in the stream progressively damaged that structure. Accidents occurred and the crossing reached a point at which it could no longer be used, prompting the provincial government to replace it with a permanent project rather than repair the temporary passage.
The new infrastructure reorganises mobility in an area that has grown quickly. Javier Caffa, head of the Provincial Roads Directorate, said the route will help relieve traffic on Néstor Kirchner Avenue. The connection directly benefits Sagrado Corazón and also families in El Quebrachito, Liborsi and Nueva Formosa, which once again have a safe link between neighbouring districts.
The project involved work beyond installing the bridge. Crews built stabilised granular approaches, installed LED lighting throughout the area and cleared the El Pucú channel. The clearing was included ahead of the expected El Niño phenomenon to preserve stream drainage during heavy rainfall. The lighting is intended to improve both road safety and residents' everyday movement.
Before opening the crossing, technical teams from the provincial and national road agencies carried out the required structural tests. The procedure subjected the bridge to heavy-vehicle traffic, measured its deflection and established its load capacity. The difference from the previous bridge is specific: the closed structure allowed motorcycles, cars and light vehicles, while the new one was approved for loads of up to 25 tonnes.
According to Caffa, employees of the Provincial Roads Directorate completed the work in less than a month without hiring a private company. At the ceremony, he linked that approach to the province's public-investment policy and contrasted it with the suspension of national projects. He also criticised opposition sectors for demanding speed from the province without making the same demand of the national government over road projects halted in Formosa.
Resident Graciela Benítez summed up the neighbourhood impact by emphasising the safety, calm and connectivity provided by the new passage. The opening concluded the testing period and put into service a project combining the bridge, approaches, lighting and channel clearing. Its performance will now be tested in ordinary traffic and, in particular, under heavy loads and episodes of intense rainfall.
