Governor gives the go ahead for bridge between Santos and Guarujá

São Paulo’s new governor, João Doria, has given consent to start building a bridge between Santos and Guarujá, expected to commence next semester. The Ministry of Logistics and Transportation believes the construction work will take three years to complete. The concessionaire, Ecovias, plans to build a 7.5 km long flyover, beginning at the entrance to Santos and ending at the Barnabé Island, about 500 meters from the Guarujá toll booth.

The project is still under review by the São Paulo State Transportation Regulatory Agency (Artesp) and depends on the approval of environmental licenses. The government is hopeful to complete all the legal work within a few months.

It is the state’s third attempt to connect Santo Amaro (Guarujá) and São Vicente (Santos). Previous proposals include an underwater tunnel and a bridge at the location where the ferries currently operate. The new bridge will cut the travel time from today’s 1 hour 30 minutes to just 40 minutes.

Santos is the largest port in Brazil. DataLiner shows some important statistics of Santos, as follows: 

The following map shows the proposed location of the bridge:

Since taking office, the Bolsonaro government has expressed interests in improving the country’s transportation infrastructure.

Datamar insight:

Currently, the Port of Santos adopts a time-consuming system where only one ship passes through the channel at a time; there is enough space for more than one vessel. Datamar research for the  ECSA terminal container report shows that terminals would like to see more than one vessel passing through the channel at a given point in time. The question is how the bridge will affect this?

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