The 6.5-kilometer highway is activated today, government officials said. Its inauguration took place at a time when it is forbidden to launch works during the election period.
On Friday, the construction of the La Libertad bypass was completed, a 6.5-kilometer-long highway with an investment of $ 61.5 million, according to the Ministry of Public Works.
The President of the Republic, who took a tour of the road, said that from today, Salvadorans can travel through this work that aims to stimulate the economy and cars in the country. More than 100,000 people will benefit from this road project, the state government authorities.
The works were completed with the construction of the third section of the highway, which is 3.25 kilometers long and has four lanes that connect with the Litoral highway, at the level of Conchalío beach.
In September last year, MOP announced the completion of the first two phases, the first 2.89 kilometers built of hydraulic concrete whose cost reached 27.3 million dollars. It stretches from the area known as La Danta to the vicinity of the Chilama River.
The second part is 380 meters long, includes a 280-meter-long viaduct 45 meters high, considered the tallest and longest bridge in the country.
“This is the last section linking the road infrastructure project to the Carretera del Litoral, in the Conchalío beaches sector,” the MOP said on Friday after announcing the completion of the entire works.
Read also: La Libertad district stretches irregularly, according to a complaint from the Public Works Prosecutor
Inauguration during the election closing
This opening took place in the midst of a legal ban on allowing works in El Salvador due to the approach of the election season.
The same El Salvador newspaper, the government’s propaganda platform, originally painted it as an “inauguration.” He later reformulated and claimed that the work had been activated, but a screenshot of his Twitter account shows that they took care of the first term.
Article 178 of the Electoral Code states: “During the thirty days prior to the date set for the elections, neither the Government of the Republic, nor the Municipal Councils and other autonomous entities may publish the contracts in any kind of private or state media. works of national infrastructure or of any other nature which they have carried out, are carrying out or intend to carry out in accordance with the provision or assistance services to which the State is obliged ‘.
In the opinion of the lawyer and electoral expert Ruth Eleonora López, this is “absolutely an inauguration”.
What’s more: The government will build two new passages in San Juan Opico and Zacatecoluca
“If it’s a street that wasn’t used and can be used from now on, what I do (saying I ‘allow’ it) is a subterfuge to mask the problem,” added the lawyer, who described it as “unpresentable.” Government for violating electoral regulations.
According to the same Electoral Code, in its article 230, the violation of this measure implies the withdrawal from office and a fine if the person who violates the provision is a popularly elected official.
Previous controversies
Starting in 2019, the government in turn denounced irregularities in the construction of the last phase of this mega-project committed by previous MOP administrations. In September of the same year, they pointed out that when the construction was received, it was paralyzed and registered an advance of 18%, when it had to be completed in July.
Minister Romeo Rodríguez He pointed out to the former heads of that portfolio, Gerson Martínez and Eliud Ayala, that they had committed a series of irregularities in assigning the construction of section III and sent alleged evidence to that effect to the Public Ministry.
He said the project lasted 18 months, 6 months for design and one year for construction; But the company took a year to complete the design, and the design was never approved.
According to Minister Rodríguez, the Court of Auditors itself questioned the construction of Section III and, in its observations, ruled that the contract with the construction company, which at the time was Ingeniería y Construcción Eben Ezer SA de CV, and Concretos Asfálticos de Colombia SA was not made.