The duplication of the BR-070 highway to Goiás will be completed in 2014.

Goiás247 - The government of Goiás is expected to deliver, by the end of 2014, the duplicated section of the GO-070 highway between Itaberaí and the city of Goiás. From Goiânia to the former capital, the project will cover more than 120 kilometers of dual carriageway. This assessment comes from the director of works at Agetop, Marcos Musse, who reported that the contractor who won the bid to duplicate the Itaberaí/Mossâmedes junction section has already begun operations on the site.

According to the director, the workers have already begun preparatory activities, such as clearing the right-of-way, deforestation, quarrying, and moving fences. These are activities that the abundant rains at this time of year do not impede. As for the remaining stretch, the Mossâmedes/Goiás city interchange, although there is no date yet for the bidding process, it is expected that the opening of the tender will be very soon.

According to Marcos Musse, the GO-070 highway expansion works are progressing rapidly. "The governor is demanding maximum speed from us," he states. "The fact that we are in the middle of the rainy season, the so-called 'water season,' doesn't prevent numerous activities from taking place. Only the earthmoving works are suspended," he explains.

The GO-070 highway is already a dual carriageway from Goiânia to Inhumas, a stretch of 36 kilometers. It's dual carriageway, signposted, and illuminated. From Inhumas to Itauçu, the 18-kilometer stretch is more than 95% paved. The remaining paving is being carried out even in the rain, since, after priming – spraying tar over the gravel base – the surface can receive the asphalt layer in any weather conditions. In this section, work is concentrated on completing bridges, culverts, and access roads to the main road, after which signage and lighting work will begin.

The Itauçu/Itaberaí section is still in the preparatory phase. The contractor is working on more than 50% of this section, which is just over 20 kilometers long. Also in this phase, the work focuses on clearing and deforestation of the right-of-way, dismantling quarries, moving fences, and preparing the base.

“The works don’t stop,” says Musse. “The contractor is fully mobilized,” he informs. According to the director, “there will be a short break for the end-of-year holidays, but we will return in full force at the beginning of January.” The inauguration of this section is scheduled for June of next year.

The project enhances the first capital.

For Marcos Musse, the duplication of GO-070 to the city of Goiás represents not only an added convenience for drivers using that public road: "It's a restoration of the importance of a city that was the radiating center of civilization in the central region of the country." Founded by the Paulista explorer Bartolomeu Bueno da Silva in the 18th century, and populated by prospectors and gold miners, the city of Goiás, originally Vila Boa, was the first capital of Goiás, and remained so until 1937 when the government was transferred to Goiânia, founded in 1933.

The city of Goiás has been declared a World Heritage Site by the UN. With a strong tourism potential, the city is very popular with visitors throughout the year. Its colonial houses and churches, its cuisine, its streams and waterfalls, and the beauty of the Serra Dourada mountain range are its main attractions. The city of Goiás, home to the International Environmental Film and Video Festival (FICA), is the birthplace of Veiga Valle, a Baroque sculptor of religious images; the land of Goiandira do Couto, a painter who used the sands of the Serra Dourada as pigment for her paints; Celi Camargo, a great regional singer and minstrel of Goiás traditions; and, above all, the home of Cora Coralina, the most famous poet from Goiás, "the most important person in Goiás," in the words of the late poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade. With the duplication of the GO-070 highway to the city of Goiás, a historical debt of the people of Goiás to their first capital is being repaid.