URUGUAY: The completion date for the Ferrocarril Central programme to modernise the 273 km line between Montevideo and Paso de los Toros has been put back from September 2022 until May 2023.
At the end of 2020 the works were 31% complete, instead of 53% as originally planned.
The main cause of the delay is the slow process to acquire land needed for works including double tracking and the construction of several sections of new alignment.
The UPM pulp mill which is being built near Paso de los Toros will initially send its output by road until the railway works are completed.
During March, Ferrocarril Central contractor CCFC took delivery of 13 Sgs flat wagons supplied by Belgian company DAXI for the transport of long rails, as well as a Plasser & Theurer Unimat 08-475/3S tamper and a PBR 400 U-RS ballast regulator. It also took delivery of some of the 124 turnouts ordered from Amurrio Ferrocarriles y Equipos in Spain.
CCFC has begin installation of the four sections of the 200 m Pintado bridge, 1·3 km south of Florida station. It is the longest of the bridges which will be replaced under the programme, as the existing bridges at 25 de Agosto, Durazno and Paso de los Toros will be strengthened rather than replaced.
