Government officials announced this week that a Santiago transportation plan to build a station in Plaza Los Dominicos – which will connect the subway system and public buses, and hold over 2,000 underground parking spaces - will most likely not be built in the form once hoped.
Plaza Los Dominicos, in the east-Santiago neighborhood of Las Condes, would extend the Red Line (Line 1) of the Santiago Metro. Its future, hurt by budget shortfalls, is currently being debated between the Metro administration and the Las Condes municipality.
The Metro originally proposed $620 million Chilean pesos (US$1.13 million) for design and engineering of the space, with Las Condes picking up a third of the project’s cost. However, neither group seems ready to break ground on the expansion.
Metro President Clemente Pérez said that the project will not be launched in the near future, as “neither [Las Condes] nor we have the resources to build this,†Pérez said in La Tercera. “We haven’t even come to an agreement about minor financial matters, like who is going to pay the engineers, or how to distribute the work. The other thing that’s not yet clear is if there will be private interest [in the project].â€
Las Condes Mayor Francisco de la Maza had been a strong proponent of the expansion project.
“We want to have a station in an area like Los DomÃnicos, an access point not just for community members, but for people coming from La Reina or Vitacura,†he said in 2008. “Escuela Militar receives a higher quantity of passengers than any other station… Because of that, [this project] would improve the quality of life.â€
Pérez and De la Maza agreed to take up the proposal at the next City Council meeting.
SOURCES: LA TERCERA
By Daniel Zarchy ( editor@santiagotimes.cl)