Engineer Eric Garcia points out several “critical points” and technical errors in the design of the government’s megaproject

Controversy and complaints have been the order of the day following the construction of the Integrated Transport System of the Metropolitan Area of San Salvador (Sitramss). To these voices are added the technical criticisms of the engineer Erick García, Master in Traffic, Planning and Transport, graduated from the University of Leeds, England.

García pointed out that Sitramss has technical errors that will lead to “failure” and whose execution has “failed” strategies. The following are indications of this engineer, who has 18 years of professional practice and also holds a master’s degree in hydrogeology from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and another in business administration from Fepade.

A poorly done study

Have you ever been a victim of the traffic jams on Army Boulevard, John Paul II Boulevard and alternative routes?

The specialist states that vehicular chaos is only the beginning of a project based on a “badly done study”.

In 2011, the Government through the Vice-Ministry of Transport (VMT) awarded Consorcio Acciona Ingeniería -TTC-Escallón Morales (EM&A) a feasibility study for Sitramss, which includes four volumes, 26 annexes with plans, measurements and budgets, and a report. The cost of preparing this study was $1,267,037.

“How does the beginning of the failure of Sitramss begin? First, they ignored (in the VMT) many recommendations of studies that really supported in a technical way which were the best options to execute this project,” argued García, who has been a consultant for the IDB, UNDP and the World Bank.

However, the engineer does not refer to the study prepared by the EM&A consortium.

“There are two major studies, the important one is the feasibility study and preliminary design of the main axis of mass transport, carried out by Fosep (Salvadoran Fund for Pre-investment Studies) and which was carried out by one of the same companies that participated in the final design of this project,” he explained.

Also, in 2010, a consortium made up of the companies Epypsa (Spain), C. Lotti & Associati (Italy), and León Sol (El Salvador), prepared the study of the Territorial Development Plan for the Metropolitan Subregion of San Salvador.

The study contains the proposal of High Capacity Routes for the future Integrated Metropolitan Public Transport System; and had a cost of about one million dollars.

In 2009, the mayor of the capital, Norman Quijano, had begun to work on a transport project to decongest the Metropolitan Area of San Salvador (AMSS) in the medium term. He called it Metrobus.

But the government headed by Mauricio Funes did not allow the project to prosper and presented its proposal, called Sitramss.

The stretch presented by the Executive contemplates a single route that starts at the Sitramss terminal, located at Rosario Sur Avenue in Soyapango, and will reach the 33rd South Avenue, through the Medical Surgical Hospital, at Alameda Juan Pablo II.

“One of the main mistakes made by the authorities of Public Works (MOP) and the Vice-Ministry of Transport (VMT) was to change the initial route of the project,” said Garcia.

Garcia alleged that the route had to be from Soyapango, through Army Boulevard, Independencia Avenue, Ruben Dario Street, Alameda Roosevelt to Manuel Enrique Araujo.

“The best experiences worldwide are to feed the historic center of an excellent public transportation, to withdraw as much as possible the private transportation in that area,” he said.

But in El Salvador that logic did not work. “With the Sitramss crossing the Alameda Juan Pablo II, private traffic will turn to the historic center,” García said.

Less space for private traffic

About 50,000 cars circulate daily along the Boulevard of the Army; while 41,470 drive through John Paul II, according to VMT statistics.

With the construction of the Sitramss, the arteries for private traffic were reduced by 50%, or more in some points.

“The infrastructure of Sitramss is already putting motorists in trouble, especially those who drive along the Alameda John Paul II, where the lanes went from three to one in both directions,” says the expert.

Then he adds: “If we know that two lanes (on Army Boulevard) and one on Juan Pablo are not enough right now, much less will satisfy the demand in 20 years,” he warns.

The Army Boulevard went from three lanes to two lanes in both directions. García argues that eliminating the central bed would have somewhat reduced congestion in the country’s important industrial and logistical zone.

But this alternative, although it was written in feasibility studies such as EM&A, was not applied by the VMT.

“Removing the bed would have given him more space, of course it would. San Salvador has two natural corridors of mobilization, touch any of those two and you affect all mobility from east to west, and vice versa,” he says.

Location of the terminal and bus stop

Recently, the Ministry of Public Works (MOP) cancelled the contract with the Mexican company that built the Sitramss terminal in Soyapango, whose infrastructure was 51% completed. The authorities said they will hire another company to complete the work.

The specialist in traffic and transport describes as “critical” the location of the Integration terminal in Soyapango and the lack of a bus stop in front of shopping centers in that area.

The engineer’s reasons are that the shopping centers in that area are visited, on average, by 50,000 people a day. Based on these figures, he considers it a serious error that the bus stop was ignored at this point and located in front of the Antekirta neighborhood, since there will be no greater user demand in that area.

“You are not going to put a stop in the middle of nowhere, like Antekirta. When I don’t have a stop in front of the shops and I force people to walk about 200 or 300 meters to the Integration terminal, in the middle of rain, and without giving pedestrians the facilities to move,” he explained.

Garcia added that the businessmen of the area proposed to build the station in front of the shopping centers, in addition to an exclusive pedestrian crossing, to connect the establishments with the terminal, but that the initiative was rejected by the VMT.

“This affected their times (VMT), was one of the answers they gave, and that it was already like that,” said the engineer.

The EM&A Consortium study considered placing a traffic light in the Army Boulevard and Rosario Sur Avenue, in Soyapango, to give way to the buses that leave the Integration terminal and join the boulevard.

Garcia recalls that in the same corner of the mall there was a traffic light, which was removed to facilitate the passage of vehicles and turns in that area.

“And now they come, and they will be stopping all traffic coming from the east to allow buses to cross. It’s not the most logical thing to do,” he said.

At this intersection, vehicle traffic is heavy at peak times. Garcia estimated that the traffic light would worsen the flow of vehicles in the area.

Few returns

Sitramss is also a problem for those who want to make returns on Army Boulevard. Amatepec hospital patients will be the most affected, according to Garcia.

In John Paul II the problem is minor, says Garcia. Although the return to access the Medical Surgical hospital is close, the traffic in the area will be the executioner of the patients of this nosocomial.

“They are drowning the main logistics area and the main industrial area of the country, not San Salvador,” he says.

In May, the vice-minister of Transport, Nelson García, blamed the Sitramss study carried out by the EM&A consortium as “very deficient,” and pointed to him as the culprit of the project’s delays.

Initially Sitramss was scheduled to begin in February 2014, but the date has been postponed and there is still no firm deadline to start the project, although the vice president of the Republic, Oscar Ortiz, promised that the entire Sitramss would be ready by December this year and would be like a “Christmas present.

The state acquired a $45 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for the infrastructure of Sitramss.

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