The municipality of Las Higueras found a "solution" for the historic neglect of the roads: charging users a new provisional toll. The completely unusual idea came from Mayor Gianfranco Lucchesi and aims to repair a seven-kilometer (4.35-mile) stretch of National Route 158. The request was submitted to the Ministry of Economy along with the proposal to raise 2 billion in four months.
According to their explanation, the stretch between the Seminario roundabout and the Chucul bridge is impassable and requires urgent intervention. However, the municipality lacks both the funds and the legal authority to take charge, and the national government has abandoned the old scheme of opaque public works. "We have to get creative and do it quickly," said Lucchesi, as if shifting the cost to citizens were a political stroke of genius.
The criticism is directed at the National Government for eliminating Vialidad, even though it was under that structure that endless tolls and phantom roads flourished. Corruption in public works is not a myth: it has names, convictions, and sentences, such as those involving Cristina Kirchner for the misdirection of funds. However, now they intend for the same failed model to continue as if nothing happened.
Councilors want roads, but want someone else to pay for them
The City Council of Río Cuarto also joined the demand with a project that rejects the closure of Vialidad. They argue that the region needs a functional road network and fear that the lack of decisions will worsen the deterioration. What they do not say is why they never cared when the roads were contracted with inflated prices and never completed.
