Coastal expansion

Brazil: Brazil's Departamento Nacional de Infra-Estrutura de Transportes (DNIT) is to invest BRL 1.6 billion (US$ 731 million) to widen the national BR-101 coastal highway, according to local press reports.

The DNIT will use funds from the country's Pilot Project Investment (PPI) fund, alongside Government and International Monetary Fund (IMF) finance.

The BR-101 links São José do Norte in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul to Natal city, in north-eastern Rio Grande do Norte and is considered integral to trade between Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay.

The DNIT is currently completing expansion of the southernmost stretch of the highway, and has begun works on the stretch between Belo Horizonte, São Paulo, Curitiba, and Florianópolis. When complete this portion of the BR-101 will link Belo Horizonte to Argentina via the BR-290 highway, and to Uruguay on the BR-116.

Work on the southern stretch of the BR-101 in Rio Grande do Sul is expected to finish this year, according to a report in Panorama Brasil. DNIT began the project in 2005 and expects to complete the work by 2008.