Tunnel Project Connecting Rio for Olympics -- On the Scene

(ATR) The light at the end of the tunnel can be seen for the TransOlimpica highway.

On Aug. 4, Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes, Rio de Janeiro State Governor Luis Fernando Pezao, and Rio 2016 president Carlos Nuzman, watched as the final part of the Engenho Velo tunnel was cleared, finishing the final tunnel of the project, leaving only 35 percent of the project to finish.

A spokesperson for the mayor said to Around the Rings that the project will finish on time in the first half of 2016, and that the remaining works for the project are to pave the full 25-kilometer stretch.

Olympic lanes will not be present on the highway, but it will feature a permanent dedicated bus rapid-transit lane for those who use public transportation.

"It may seem only a tunnel, but this hill here for many years separated the poorest part of town, west zone, from the rest of the city," Eduardo Paes said after the tunnel was opened.

"It will reduce the travel time with BRT and car for areas of the city that were once abandoned. The Olympics serve for us to integrate the city."

Pezao congratulated Paes on the delivery of the TransOlimpica project, saying the opening of the highway is an occasion the people of Rio should celebrate.

"There are several legacies the Games will leave, but I believe that urban mobility will be the greatest," the governor said.

"The BRT has shown its success and is now opening another corridor here. We must congratulate Mayor Paes for his determination in finishing the dreams that this city had over a long time."

When polled by ATR, residents of the Sulacap neighborhood said that they did not know if they would use the highway project, which aims to reduce travel time between the Deodoro Olympic Park and the Barra de Tijuca neighborhood. All of the residents surveyed lived and worked in Sulacap, and did not need to travel to Barra or Deodoro on a daily basis.

Currently travel time between the two areas of the city takes an estimated two and a half hours but with the new TransOlimpica highway, it will be reduced to an estimated thirty minutes.

"It is exciting to see an area of town that had no development, there was no opportunity for growth, and today we see at the opening of this tunnel, a work that will leave an extraordinary legacy," Carlos Nuzman said.

The highway will link up with both the Transcarioca and Transoeste highway lines, built for the Olympics. Eventually, the TransOlimpica highway will meet the Transbrasil highway, which is set to be completed after the Games. All four highways will feature dedicated lanes for the BRT.

Written by Aaron Bauer in Rio de Janeiro

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