Agua Negra project and the tunnel have a rich and vary history if we consider the way from Coquimbo-La Serena to San Juan and the tunnel from the last century. Chilean Rodrigo Iribarren Avilés investigated great part of said history for over ten years. Said investigation resulted in the book “Agua Negra, Historias de un camino”, published in 2012.
It is known that hunting and harvester tribes, then agricultural and cattle-raising tribes used the first tracks of the way. Said tribes migrated with vicunas and guanacos during the summer, while they harvested in the narrow valleys of the Andes. Later, along with the Inca expansion, other wanderers went deeper in lamas caravans through the Camino del Inca.
During the Spanish Domain in 1575, Don Gaspar Zárate addressed to the King in representation of the Cabildo de San Juan, asking for the construction of a route that connected the city with La Serena. An interesting traffic of mules, minerals and products made in both countries kept on going.
In 1817, one of the columns of the Ejército Libertdor de Los Andes formed in San Juan under the command of Lt. Juan Manuel Cabot and marched towards Coquimbo through Pismanta, then Portillo de Agua Negra to reach Paso de Guana where around one hundred patriots from Coquimbo under the command of Captain Patricio Zaballos y Egaña joined them.
A new story begins to be told when in April 1862 the railway line that joined Puerto de Coquimbo with the city of la Serena was inaugurated. This line was said to extend the rails to San Juan. The railway line moved forward almost 94 km by 1886 and got to Rivadavia. Up to 1924, the idea of continuing to San Juan was held and even some studies were made but the project was never set.
In 1869, Indalecio Castro crosses Agua Negra for the first time in carts and carriages from Copiapó. The difficulties he went through forced him to dismantle the carriages and the put them back together. Other chronicles state that he crossed in a different path. San Juan Government awarded him with 10,000 pesos for proving that it was possible to make a cart driven path.
In 1933, the Chilean journal El Chileno published that “An International Pro Road Committee was set in order to motivate design of the Agua Negra road. The path San Juan-Coquimbo, through Valle El Elqui is a hope of salvation that the inhabitants of that area cherish since the last few years they have suffered the consequences of the economic crisis due to their source of income and resources are based exclusively on the export of their products”.
During 1933, the idea of building a tunnel by the end of the 1940’s started to take shape. 1947-1950 was the period in which Ruperto Godoy was the governor of San Juan.
In 1935, Argentina and Chile agreed on border paths of interest with the intention of making new works, among them we can mention San Juan a Ovalle through Paso de Agua Negra or through Portezuelo del Viento. The agreements signed were incorporated to the Protocolo Adicional del Tratado de Límites (1881) valid and authenticated in July 2, 1935 by Chancellors Carlos Saavedra Lamas (Argentina) and Miguel Cruchaga Tocornal (Chile).
In 1939, a committee for the road layout was set, and technical and political discussions about the advantages of making a road through El Castaño in Calingasta or Agua Negra begun. In Jáchal, an International Pro Road Committee was created and in Vicuña, the Departmental Committee that organized an open council meeting was created in order to discuss the importance of the matter.
In October 1947, the road works from Jáchal to Chile were inaugurated. The Governor by then was Ruperto Godoy and the President was Juan Domingo Perón. The international route of Agua Negra was inaugurate, though it was baptized Presidente Perón. By the end of the 50’s, the Provincial Transport Department accelerated the works in that route over the mining deposits of Arrequintín and Agua Blanca (wolfram, fluorite, copper).
In May 1, 1965, the road was inaugurated. Argentina Vice-president, Carlos Perette, San Juan Governor, Leopoldo Bravo and authorities from both countries were present in the inauguration.
The first import takes place in April 1967. A caravan of trucks loaded with 420 heads of bovine cattle to carry it to Perú comes out from San Juan and goes to the port of Coquimbo. The works was functioning for 13 years but the conflict over the Beagle Channel interrupts the traffic through Agua Negra between 1978 and January 1991 when democracy reached both countries again.
The Complementation Agreements signed between April 1986 and October 2002, state the reopening and maintenance of the route San Juan - La Serena - Coquimbo. This allowed the consolidation of bonds of friendship and economic, touristic and technological complementation projecting their productions to the continent and the world.
In 1996 the Acuerdo de Complementación Económica (ACE) between Chile and MERCOSUR was signed. 13 top priority steps were stated in order to develop a better connection among Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay. Among said steps, Agua Negra is defined as priority and a special investment program is assigned.
The tunnel project is the result of an initiative from many years ago that arouse from the idea of providing a more advanced road solution in a border crossing path that had already been included in the Road Works Plan for the Priority Border Crossing Paths. This crossing path was part of the integration calendar inspired by the Governments of Chile and Argentina decades ago. In the political field, the province of San Juan and Coquimbo Region strongly pushed this project from the very beginning and promoted the governments of both countries to pay attention to it. From then on, emerged the proposal of studying a more ambitious work as a tunnel.
Between 1999 and 2009 several demad studies, load and transportation fow analysis were carried out. There is an advance in terms of geological, hydrological, geotechnical studies and regarding a conceptual sketch of the tunnel.
Between 2009 and 2011, Argentina requests first the conceptual study and design and then the Agua Negra tunnel basic engineering and environmental impact sketches. This promoted, among other factors that in October 30, 2009 a Complementary Protocol to the Treaty of Maipú were signed creating a Binational Entity to conduct and analyze the studies and manage all other stages related to a possible construction. The Binational Entity for the Project Túnel de Baja Altura del Paso de Agua Negra, EBITAN stablished in 2010.
In June 2013, EBITAN took a basic step by calling the interest of companies and consortiums from all over the world that were willing to build and finance most of the cost necessary for the construction of the Túnel de Agua Negra. This call registrated 23 firms interested in the project but the process was left incomplete in 2014 since the Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) (IADB in English) offered to fully finance the project.
In December 2014, both Argentina and Chile passed the II Complementary Protocol to the Treaty of Maipú through which it is decided to perform the works Túnel de Agua Negra. The regulatory frame applicable to the project is defined and EBITAN is assigned with international legal entity in order to fulfill its aims.
In December 2015, in a Press Conference in Argentina, the President of the Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo communicated the BID decision of fully financing the project Túnel de Agua Negra.
In April 2016, at the BID Headquarters in Washington, the Ministers of Finance from Argentina and Chile and the President of Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo agree on the first disbursement for the financing of the project for the amount of U$S 40,000,000 destined to the startup of the works.
In June 2016, EBITAN passes its Functioning Regulations Document.
In October 2016, the call for Pre-qualifications to firms and consortiums, as part of the first stage of the biding process for the Project Túnel de Agua Negra.
