Overview
- A confidential report circulated to governors on Tuesday projects annual freight will rise from about 128 million tonnes to nearly 194 million tonnes by 2035, driven by lithium, copper, hydrocarbons and agriculture.
- The report says Vaca Muerta alone will need about 4.5 million tonnes of sand a year—roughly 140,000 truckloads—and notes there is no rail link between Bahía Blanca and Neuquén to shift that volume off roads.
- Authors identify five structural problems: heavily deteriorated and saturated road corridors, slow border crossings, collapsed port accesses, underused rail and multimodal links, and unresolved plans for the Paraná‑Paraguay Hidrovía and freight rail network.
- Provincial officials told reporters they are in advanced talks with the national government to take over national routes that lack active concessions so they can re‑tender works and add toll concessions, with deals possibly closing in the coming weeks.
- The report shows routine maintenance costs (about USD 15,000–40,000 per km per year) are far lower than full rebuilds (about USD 1.3–3.5 million per km) and warns that failing to act will raise logistics costs, worsen road safety, and threaten the competitiveness of export sectors central to the national growth plan.