Since yesterday, the inhabitants of the northern area of Quibdó closed the Huapango bridge, demanding that the municipal and departmental governments comply with agreements related to the construction of the Kennedy-Los Álamos bridge and a new bridge in Huapango.
The Huapango bridge was built over the El Caraño stream in the 1950s by the former Ministry of Public Works and Transportation, and connects the center of the city of Quibdó with the northern zone, an area that is home to approximately 35% of the inhabitants of the city, where the flow of vehicles, motorcycles, cyclists and pedestrians that cross the bridge is very high.
Nowadays this bridge presents a great deterioration. On May 24, 2022, the Third Administrative Court of the Quibdó circuit approved a compliance agreement between the 186 Judicial Prosecutor’s Office and the Quibdó mayor’s office to carry out a pathological study on fatigue, cracks, damage and deterioration of the Huapango bridge, as well as the technical measures to repair it or, where appropriate, build a new one. Nothing has been reported about it and fear is growing about an accident or serious collapse of this old and dilapidated structure.
In relation to the Kennedy-Los Álamos bridge, the mayor of Quibdó signed a seven-pint agreement with the community in the northern zone on December 9, 2021, as a result of a civic protest that lasted several days.
Textually, in point four of the agreement it was signed: “Mayor Martín Sánchez Valencia, in relation to the bridge over the Caraño ravine (extension of the first race), reported that the studies and designs of the project have already begun, and that, according to the programming, the works must begin in the first semester of 2022; He also maintained that they have the resources to carry out the work”.
This point has not been met and is a reason for the disagreement of the community in the northern zone. The new Kennedy-Álamos bridge project has existed since 2013 and the governors and mayors of these ten years have made fun of the community in this important sector of Quibdó.