The 5km elevated section between Palermo and La Paternal has eliminated 11 level crossings where road users faced delays of up to 20 minutes. Construction of two new stations at Villa Crespo and Chacarita is continuing, while renovation of the San Martin Retiro station in the centre of Buenos Aires will be completed in the next few months, followed by electrification of this commuter rail line which links Buenos Aires with Pilar and Dr Cabred.

The San Martin line currently carries around 170,000 passengers per day and this is expected to increase to 305,000 passengers per day by 2022 when the project is completed.

Second viaduct

The San Martin viaduct is the second elevated section of railway to open in Buenos Aires following completion of the Palermo - Núñez viaduct on the Retiro Mitre - Tigre section of the Mitre Line on May 10. This will be followed by a third elevated section on the Belgrano Sur Line.

“The last viaduct was built 100 years ago,” Mr Guillermo Dietrich, Argentina’s minister of transport, said on July 10. “Today is the second we are inaugurating this year. They are works that were left undone and today we are seeing them become reality. We are building a third viaduct, that of Belgrano Sur, with which we are going to eliminate even more barriers, opening streets.”