Hernandarias Subfluvial Tunnel

Raúl Uranga – Carlos Sylvestre Begnis Subfluvial Tunnel

The approach to the tunnel
Overview
Location	Santa Fe, Santa Fe and Paraná, Entre Ríos
Waterway	Paraná River
Route	National Route 168
Operation
Work begun	February 3, 1962
Opened	December 13, 1969
Technical
Length	2,397 metres (7,864 ft)
No. of lanes	2

The Raúl Uranga – Carlos Sylvestre Begnis Subfluvial Tunnel (in Spanish, Túnel Subfluvial Raúl Uranga - Carlos Sylvestre Begnis), formerly known as the Hernandarias Subfluvial Tunnel, is an underwater road tunnel that connects the provinces of Entre Ríos and Santa Fe in Argentina, crossing the Paraná River between the capital of Entre Ríos, Paraná, and Santa Cándida Island, 15 km from Santa Fe.

The tunnel was opened on 13 December 1969, after decades of rejected ideas, delays and frustrated projects (including the idea of using a cable-stayed bridge). The governors of the two provinces, Raúl Uranga and Carlos Sylvestre Begnis, signed a joint treaty authorizing the construction in 1960; the first stone was set in 1962, and the first tubes were built in 1966. Construction was undertaken by a consortium headed by the German firm Hochtief AG.

In 2004, traffic statistics on the tunnel counted 2,780,133 vehicles, of which almost 2.2 million were cars or motorcycles, and the rest were trucks (most of them 8- or 10-wheelers).

The tunnel is controlled by a board with representatives of both provinces, formally called Ente Interprovincial Raúl Uranga - Carlos Sylvestre Begnis.

Until the opening of the Rosario-Victoria Bridge, this was the only road link between two commercially important and populous regions of Argentina, and the only one between the two provinces (more to the south, Entre Ríos is connected to the province of Buenos Aires by the Zárate-Brazo Largo Bridge).