The air of abandonment of recent years gives way to a rushed pace of work. Almost 13 years after the start of the works, six of which were completely stopped, the first part of the northern section of the São Paulo ring road will finally be handed over to motorists. The inauguration is scheduled for next Monday (22).
26 km long, the road will connect the Fernão Dias and Presidente Dutra federal highways and connect the eastern section (Ayrton Senna highway).
With an approximate total cost of almost R$3.4 billion, of which R$1.35 billion contributed by public resources and R$2 billion by the concessionaire Via Ápia, the northern section still has a second part under construction, up to the Bandeirantes motorway region, whose delivery is scheduled for the second half of 2026.
Only then will the ring road, begun in the late 1990s to free up the marginal roads of Tietê and Pinheiros, in the city of São Paulo, be completed. In total, the Rodoanel will be approximately 176 kilometers long.
The journalist traveled by car, Tuesday morning (16), the 26 km of the road which will now be inaugurated. The final touches were in progress, but they were numerous. While workers lifted the metal fenders from the ground to install them, others cleaned the dirt-covered asphalt.
There was still a lack of signage, including on the ground, but the promise is that the approximately 6,000 people currently working on the project – at its peak there were 10,000 – will have everything ready for the handover ceremony.
Until April last year, when construction resumed, the abandoned skeleton was occupied by debris, animals and weeds. The tracks were used for motorcycle racing.
“It was a difficult scenario,” says André Isper, president of Artesp (São Paulo State Transport Agency). “But we have to understand that it took a long time (to complete) and that the government owes this work to the people.”
In total, the northern part of the ring road has 70 special works of art, such as bridges and viaducts. Many were in need of salvage due to the deterioration that was already beginning to appear.
The surface had to be completely redone and parts of the original perimeter had to be modernized because they did not meet current road standards, such as the adaptation of protective barriers and tunnel systems.
According to Brendon Ramos, CEO of Via Appia, renovating and leveraging existing structures is generally more complex than building from scratch. “We had to evaluate and reuse abandoned works, often without adequate quality control, which required a large technical engineering effort,” he says.
THE LeafGovernor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) says that the total completion of the northern part will make a difference not only for the logistics of the state, but especially for those who live and work in the region. “After more than 20 years of waiting, we are getting closer and closer to the completion of Rodoanel, which many no longer believed possible,” he says.
The part to be inaugurated includes four tunnels (two round-trip structures), the largest of which is 940 meters long — when the journalist was on the highway, one of them (westbound) was closed to traffic. In the others, there were cleaning and electrical installation teams.
There will be a toll in the free circulation system, with free passage, in Guarulhos. The amount of the tariff should be announced in the coming days. According to the concessionaire, the installation of four gantries planned for the entire operation cost 24 million reais.
Around 54,000 vehicles are expected to travel the 26 km, of which 60% must be heavy, such as trucks.
For Marcelo Rodrigues, president of SETCESP (Union of Goods Transport Companies of São Paulo and Region), the release of the section represents an alternative for road freight transporters, especially those who must access the port of Santos or cross the city of São Paulo during peak hours and restrictions.
He points out that Fernão Dias and Dutra flow into the eastern Tietê waterfront region, which has historically generated bottlenecks, increased travel time and operational costs, as well as greater exposure to urban risks. “This is a request that has remained without an effective solution for years.”
The section is labeled a Class 0 highway, meaning there will be no entry or exit for 26 km. Motorists accessing Rodoanel via Dutra will only be able to exit at Fernão Dias (until the rest of the road is ready).
In Dutra, the exit is near the Arujá tollbooth, in the São Paulo metropolitan area.
Anyone entering through Fernão Dias can exit at Dutra or follow the eastern section of the Rodoanel.
The roads have three or four lanes, wider than conventional roads, precisely because of the lack of road interventions. The maximum speed for light vehicles will be 100 km/h; for heavy vehicles, the limit will be 80 km/h.
In the direction of the capital São Paulo, access to land is interrupted. In the future, an exit to Guarulhos International Airport should be built there, but there is no deadline for this.
HISTORY OF DELAYS
Construction of the northern section of the Rodoanel began in 2013 and has been suspended since 2018. The work was initially budgeted at 4.3 billion reais, but, by 2019, it had already consumed around 6.85 billion reais, having become the target of investigation due to suspicions of overbilling and corruption.
Construction companies that were part of the consortiums, such as Coesa (formerly OAS) and Mendes Júnior, were heavily hit financially by Operation Lava Jato, went into receivership and were eventually declared incapacitated by the Union.
In March 2023, the Via Appia consortium won the concession to complete the work on the section. The contract was signed in August and the project resumed in April last year.
The concessionaire will operate the northern section for the next three decades.
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