The collapse of the bridge over the San Juan River, in the village La Cuba, in the municipality of Icononzo, left the inhabitants of this region and its municipalities such as Cunday and Villarrica isolated. But today, after 15 months, the vehicular transit along this road is a reality.
The technical and administrative efforts conducted by the Ministry of National Defense, the National Army, the Command of Engineers and the local authorities led to the installation of a semi-permanent modular metal bridge 24.40 meters long.
" We, the inhabitants of Iconozo, thank the National Army, the Ministry of Defense for the dedication for this bridge to put it into service for social and economic benefit of the community of all of the Colombian East," said the Mayor of Icononzo, Jorge Garcia.
This structure is intended to improve the connectivity and socio-economic development of the communities whose income was hit, due to the difficulty for the transport and marketing of products such as coffee, plantain, yucca, cane, tomato, beans, peas and several typical fruit trees native to the region.
"We had had a long time with difficulties to transport a shipment, endangering one's life. I take fruit to Bogotá and thanks to this bridge the dangers are over ", added Carlos Guerrero, inhabitant of the region.
For 16 days the soldiers of the Special Operations Engineers Battalion No. 90 carried out the assembly of the bridge that has a load capacity of up to 40 tons and is expected to benefit the 25,794 inhabitants of the municipalities of Icononzo, Cunday and Villarrica, in Tolima.
The Ministry of National Defense gave $ 714,263,396 pesos for the acquisition of the metal structure to the City Hall, which gave $ 202,000,000 pesos to carry out the preliminary works and get the guarantee policies.
