The resumption of toll collection on BR-277, in the West, is now a matter of time. Not much time. This is because the highway is already under the concession of the company EPR Iguaçu, under a contract signed for 30 years.
This period is something like a countdown to the approval of the values by the regulatory body and the publication of the new rates, to start charging at the turnstiles in the plazas. Services to users, such as towing and medical care, are being offered.
Tolls first, major works later, the completion of the duplication of the BR-277 from Foz do Iguaçu to Cascavel is expected to begin only in the third year. This is a decades-long demand from the West of Paraná to preserve lives and improve mobility on the highway.
The start of the concession and the proximity of the toll on the highway that connects the tri-national region to the major Brazilian centers requires listing other infrastructure demands for Foz do Iguaçu. To do this, it is necessary to look to the side, provisionally, so as not to remember major projects that are stalled.
To the pressing needs: Trevo do Charrua, with its roundabout closed for about five years, demands a safe solution, as well as the connection at the entrance to the city, both on BR-277. The game of pushing and shoving that prolongs resolutions is disrespectful.
Another essential project for Foz do Iguaçu and the region is the construction of a new Federal Highway Police (PRF) base. The facility, in São Miguel do Iguaçu, is expected to replace the Santa Terezinha de Itaipu unit, making traffic flow more fluid in the border region.
There is no need to go back too far. During the April holiday weekend, lines formed at the police station in the neighboring city due to the heavy flow of visitors. And there is money for this project, with R$21,8 million committed by Itaipu Binacional.
These three issues alone – widening of the BR-277 highway, a solution for the Charrua interchange and a new PRF post – are enough to demonstrate how the time of political agents is out of step with the needs of the population. Sometimes, it seems that society is lesser than the leaders who waste time in the places of power.
Mayors, deputies, governors, and presidents come and go, and the infrastructure projects in Foz do Iguaçu are nothing more than fodder for political demagogy. And when a project is completed, it is full of flaws and errors that make it ineffective (the trenches on Highway 277 with Paraná, Costa e Silva). The funny thing is that politicians and their sycophants still find it bad when the population complains about poorly done projects.
There was also a line on BR 277 in the city of Matelândia, right after the overpass in that city, before the end of the dual carriageway. The line extended along BR 277, until after the PF post in Céu Azul. Chaotic traffic. Duplication!!?!?! You have to see it to believe it. How many times will the toll be adjusted until the so-called duplication? By how much will it be? It seems to us that, after the election, society for them becomes much smaller than the private interests of each of them.