They now want our land for the new autopista!!

We've known the autopista was coming our way for a while now. We'd browsed the plans for it ages ago and had seen it was going to be built not very far away from our countryside place.

Yesterday we attended a meeting held by Macris engineers/surveyors sent from Buenos Aires who were holding a question and answer session for those affected plus the usual media pack. What we found out was they'll now need a small part of our land to build the junction to and from the motorway to the town....unbeknown to us this had since been added to the original plan.

What was interesting to see was how well everyone who attended the meeting reacted. There was no bawling and shouting, stamping of feet or argumentative behaviour even from those who will have the 100 metre wide motorway built through the middle of their land. It was all rather sedate....we were even given coffee and cake....how twee.

Quote from serafina

Clearly an insider job - 'There is a Brit among the crowd, the chori ain't gonna work'

I thought the coffee would be crap but It turned out to be rather nice. I refused the cake.

Quote from Splinter

Surely you must get some compensation UK Man ?

Even though they've started the extension from Mercedes it won't reach us until 2021....and even then it could all go tits-up. They said they'll be in touch next year.

Quote from serafina

You are playing hard to get.

What's your Achille's heel? Tobacco? Tea? Scotch?

Chocolate....decent stuff not Argentine.

Quote from Rice

I’m just now catching up. You are remarkably good humored about this infringement, UK Man. Will the “small part” of your land be on the edge of your property? And will the autopista itself be far enough away from you that you won’t have to see or hear it? I certainly hope so!

It's early days Rice and as you know nothing is certain here especially with the election coming up. The new plan isn't 100% so is still open to change especially the using our land for the exit/entry. The motorway will definitly be built about 200 metres from the house there.

Thanks Rice. No point in worrying about until it happens is how we're taking it. It's not as if we live there anyway.

What I did notice when I first travelled on Ruta 5 was how widely spaced its boundary fences were. Result being apart from the town bypasses they actually won't need new land to built the motorway as most of it is already there. It enables them to build one side of it for several kms divert traffic on to it then go back and build the other half causing very little disruption. So someone with foresight made sure there was plenty of room for expansion in the future.

Ruta 5 used to be a quiet pleasant road to use but it's now become a death trap due to the increase in car ownership since I first came. Main problem are those old fully laden lorries crawl along at 30mph leaving a tailback of cars behind them. That leads to driver frustration and risky overtaking manoeuvres which end up with fatal results. At the moment it takes about two hours to get from here just to the outskirts of Buenos Aires which for this day and age is slow.

Quote from Rice

Oh my! No wonder you don't come in to BsAs more often, UK Man. I would NEVER make the trip. Two hours of following slow trucks on a 2-lane road would make me completely crazy.

When we go in to the capital we always take the minibus. Average journey time is 3 hours each way which is why we rarely go.

Quote from Rice

No wonder. In your place, I would never get to Cap Fed.

Really no need to go in unless it's for medical appointments which thankfully are few and far between for us all. I do like visiting the capital just hate the journey.

Quote from Splinter

Note: this map is from 2016.

This is the roads plan with a considerable investment:

Source:

https://ppp.vialidad.gob.ar/proyecto-7/

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Not before time either. I'm glad the Chinese have got the contract for the Ruta 5 motorway as they don't mess about. They've already given one Argentine contractor the heave ho after they made an arse of it. That was the reason the meeting was held last week.