Although Squartini He assured that he understands that the snowfalls have been very important, he also stressed that the climatic windows are not being taken advantage of so that, at least, the truck drivers who are at the Uspallata parador (around 900) can pass and thus decompress the beaches that are at the bases -Gran Mendoza and the East-.
He mentioned that between Sunday the 16th and Monday the 17th of June, there was good time but It was not taken advantage of. In any case, the problem usually arises on the Chilean side, from where the transit of vehicles and trucks was not authorized due to the amount of snow accumulated in the Los Caracoles area.
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A more than long wait. Truckers have been waiting for the passage to Chile to open for 10 days.
Photo: Diario UNO / Axel Lloret
Some trucks no longer reach Mendoza
The head of Aprocam stated that, since the outage has been so long, Freight transport companies have already “hit the red button”, which is nothing more than a alert so that directly the trucks are not charged and Do not start the trip to Mendoza.
“At least There are 4,000 transports that are in this situationwith the papers made to cross the merchandise, but waiting in their places of origin,” said Squartini,
There are also at least 500 trucks that belong to Mendoza cargo companies and that have not been loaded directly, but that are taken into account for passage when the border opens.
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Although the landscape is clear in Uspallata, at higher altitudes the snow reaches up to 2 meters, as occurs in Las Cuevas.
Photo: Diario UNO / Axel Lloret
In this sense, He explained that this Friday they had a meeting with truck owners from Buenos Aires, who belong to the sector but who do not understand why the cut is so long.
“We explained to them that the problem has been going on for many years, but currently what has changed is that the closures of the passage to Chile are preventive, and even if the weather improves for a few hours, the trucks still do not pass,” he said.
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What is the situation like for truckers while they wait?
Squartini clarified that the 900 trucks that are on the beaches of Uspallata -Integrated Control Area (ACI) and in the two parking lots- have services available and a place to stock up on provisions to wait for the opening of Christ the Redeemer.
Also the others 1,100 trucks that are at the intersection of Route 7 and Route 40 (at the service station) and those that remain in the Eastern zone. However, the waiting times are very hard and nothing guarantees the opening of the international crossing, at least for the moment.
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This is what the town of Punta de Vacas looked like after the clearing tasks of the National Roads personnel.
Gendarmerie Press
The intense work of National Highways to clear snow from Route 7
Although the truckers’ arguments are valid, objectively it has been snowing non-stop for 10 days and National Roads does a great job to clear Route 7, but it does not last too long.
For the moment, they are content with carrying out what is called “health gap” which is the path that is cleared for emergency vehicles to pass.
In the case of this Saturday, the one that passed was a Gendarmerie caterpillar truck and it did so to rescue people who were stranded in The caves.
