Repair of the Havana Bay tunnel begins

The repairs of theHavana Bay Tunnel, announced since last April 4, began to be executed this Saturday, as announced by theMinister of Transportation Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, on your Facebook profile.

The Cuban official shared a statement from the general director of the National Road Center,Sandra Loureiro Rodríguez, who was at the beginning of the work carried out starting early Saturday morning.

In this note, the directive points out that the beginning of the repair was in the Havana-Cabañas section, where they replaced the first grate, which they described as important for the evacuation of water.

According to Loureiro Rodríguez, the grille moved around over the years and “it was necessary to place a metal plate.”

The demolition work is carried out by theHavana Road Company, together with the Transportation Construction company, specifies in its note.

He commented that "after the concrete, which supports the grid today, is demolished, the rubble is collected, the old material is removed, and the concrete is re-cast and cleaned, which will solve the problem of deterioration. of the grate area.”

He also said that in these tasks, in which two construction companies work, divided into 12 hours each, "three days will be dedicated to the demolition, formwork and concreting, and subsequently they will wait seven days for the first phase of setting the concrete, until the tunnel is reopened.”

He explained that once the tunnel is ready to open, “the protection plate will be placed again on the grating, with the aim of protecting it until May 5, when the final setting of the tunnel entrance is reached.”

After the announcement of the closure of the Havana tunnel, it was reported thatOnly special traffic regime vehicles will have access to the tunnel, which means ambulances, firefighters and the police..

“Passenger transportation vehicles related to public and business transportation buses, taxi and route services, and private carriers duly identified with the regular service sticker will also have access,” according to a note from theProvincial Road Safety Commission Havana.

Repairs happen, afterThe Minister of Transportation himself will report on the situation of this road that connects Old Havana with the east of the city, and allows the passage of about 32 thousand vehicles every day.

Rodríguez Dávila said that studies were carried out by the National Applied Research Company (ENIA) of MICONS, which concluded that the drip cycle seen is similar to that presented at other times in previous years.

He added that, however, it will be intervened for waterproofing,although it is not included in the maintenance announced now because it requires conditions, materials and specialized advice. He also stressed that the observed dripping “at the moment does not represent a danger to the current structure and circulation of the tunnel.”

In his more than 65 years of life,The tunnel has been intervened for maintenance at various times, including a capital repair in 2001, carried out by the same French company that built it.