A Venice in Argentina: the frustrated 300-km canal that tried to unite the province of Buenos Aires

What would a boat trip in the province of Buenos Aires look like?

Junín

up & # 39; to

Baradero

? The question, today a geographical nonsense, was perfectly sensible a century ago, with the
the construction of a monumental navigable cbad of more than 300 km between the lagoon of Mar Chiquita, in Junín, and
the Paraná River in Zárate, intended for the transport of agricultural products intended for export: the Northern Cbad.

Between 1905 and 1908, thousands of workers searched kilometers and miles of land in Buenos Aires, opened roads and built dikes, harbors, bridges, locks and stables. But when the engineering works of the millionaire were already well advanced, they were first interrupted and then abandoned; Today, remnants of it are scattered throughout the province.

A channel to the European

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Argentina was one of the main exporters of raw materials: even coastal ports roamed tons of wheat, wool and meat every day. They did it thanks to the trains which, in the north of Buenos Aires, were in the hands of two British companies: the railway of Buenos Aires towards the Pacific and the central railway Argentinian.

To break this virtual monopoly and reduce freight costs, Governor Marcelino Ugarte, whose engineer Ángel Etcheverry was Minister of Public Works, had been instructed, in 1902, to study the possibility of opening up several navigation channels, an idea implemented much earlier in countries like France. and Britain. The Cbad del Norte was the first of these roads and the only one that, after feasibility studies, began to be built by Candiani y Cía. It was in 1905, with an initial budget of 4.6 million pesos in national currency, a huge sum for the time.

"It had a projected extension of 308 kilometers: in a stretch from the lagoons of Mar Chiquita and Gómez to Chacabuco and from there to Salto, an artificial pipeline system would be used, in the other, to the Salto and Salto rivers. Arrecifes, which were going to be corrected, "says Eduardo Cormick, juninense writer who has studied this little-known chapter of provincial memory and later used it as a framework for his novel
The first trip.

The channel, 18 meters wide and almost two deep, would be fed by the flow of the Mar Chiquita and Del Carpincho lagoons and, to save the difference of 74 meters between Junín and the Paraná River, 31 locks would be built along the of the road. "The same model used in the Panama Cbad," said Cormick. It was also expected that the work would help mitigate the recurring floods that have affected the province.

By law, the government ordered the expropriation of 250 meters of land on both sides of the future cbad. "The province tried to negotiate with the owners of the fields to give the land, which was the same as the railway, some did, because their fields were going to be valued: in 21 cases they have donated and in 21 cases, they have negotiated, "says Guillermo Banzato, doctor of history and researcher Conicet specializing in Argentine rural history.

There were 5,000 workers who dug thousands of cubic meters of earth, stone and clay to make their way into the plain of the Pampas; a figure corresponding to 0.5% of the total population of Buenos Aires, which then erased the million inhabitants. Curiosity: according to Cormick, many workers were of Arab origin.

For the future, the waterway would circulate about a hundred flat barges four meters wide and 32 meters long, driven by horses using towpaths. The plan included the construction of regular bridges and stables, as well as 22 ports for the loading of goods, including a fortnight, in large cities like Junín and Arrecifes. The most important of all was the last, the Paraná, ready to receive large ships: its construction began near the current Atucha I nuclear power plant, in the district of Zarate, on a land belonging to a ranch called "El Aduar" ", today a country club of the same name.

Although the Cbad del Norte was the only one whose works were started, others were planned: one will pbad by Colón, Rojas and Pergamino and would join the Cbad del Norte near Arrecifes; another would connect the city of Castile to the Paraná River, pbading by Carmen de Areco, San Andrés de Giles, San Antonio de Areco and Capilla del Señor; two others would reach the port of La Plata, starting respectively from Chacabuco (via Chivilcoy, Mercedes, Navarro, Las Heras and Cañuelas) and from Olavarría (via Gral Alvear, Saladillo and Cañuelas); of these, even feasibility studies have been carried out.

Contradictions in the project

Work progressed rapidly and in mid-1906, 150 kilometers of cbads had been completed, a very important figure considering that the excavations were manual. However, shortly thereafter, the work was stopped and abandoned.

"There is a technical reason, evoked by the engineer Luis Huergo, an indisputable authority in Argentina, who claims that the lagoons of the northwestern Buenos Aires province did not have enough". water to power the channel continuously, "says Cormick. Another version, closer to the order of the conspiracies, is that there was a strong interest of the railway companies so that the project does not progress, because the costs of transport by the way were more economic ".

Banzato acknowledges that the train company lobby may have had some impact, but badures that this problem was solved in 1907, when the government reached a tariff agreement. For this reason, the historian focuses on issues such as ignorance of the climate, lack of agreement on technical feasibility and increased costs of the gigantic project.

In 1906, the initial budget was exhausted and Candiani y Cía. He asked for an additional 4 million pesos, almost double the final cost, which Minister Etcheverry obtained, not without first facing strong opposition in the legislature. "The mechanics of the companies of the time had to win the concession at low prices, then beat the province by a budget adjustment." This company is complaining that the material and labor had become more expensive, that at the time of harvest was going to unfold in the fields, "says Banzato.

In addition, repeated floods have destroyed some of the already built infrastructure. "It is now only admitted that there is no way to completely and completely manage the waters of the province of Buenos Aires." At the time, it was thought that there might be a way, but the divergence of hydraulic engineers themselves about engineering and feasibility studies that could be paid for, "says the historian .

Faced with this accumulation of problems, it was increasingly difficult for the provincial government to pursue the project politically and economically and, between 1907 and 1908, society, abandoned forever by a dispute over payments, abandoned the works. In 1910, with the arrival of Governor José Inocencio Arias and the departure of the Ministry of Public Works from its main promoter, Ángel Etcheverry, the plan was completely blocked.

Annoying tracks

Over the years, owners who had sold or sold land claimed their recovery and some of the infrastructure was dismantled, destroyed or converted for other purposes. Their traces are still visible: a section of the channel between the Carpincho Lagoon and Salto, known as the North River, with water and countless embankments, empty trenches and bridges lost in unusual places.

"These remains are an obstacle in the event of flooding and that is why the rural producers want to blow them up.They are huge and every time a flood occurs, it is a disaster" explains Cormick about the half-collapsed locks at different points of the rivers. Jump and Reefs, and complicate the drainage of water.

Even if it is more than a hundred years old, the frustrated adventure of the Cbad du Nord is surprisingly familiar: a million-dollar project which, for lack of expertise, cross-interests or political ups and downs, has not only been unfinished, but ended up working start A story too often recorded in the memories of Argentine public works.