Evaluation of the impact of the construction of "Tunel De La Linea - Colombia", through a territorial accessibility analysis

Abstract

This article analyzes the territorial accessibility generated by the impact on the construction of "Túnel La Línea" and the second roads located between the municipalities of Calarcá (Quindío) and Cajamarca (Tolima) in Colombia. This construction will substantially improve the communication between the southeast with the center and northeast of the country, because the existing system has a complicated topography that generates delays and increases operating expenses, especially in heavy goods vehicles. Additionally, a hypothetical case that simulates that both the current road as well as La Línea tunnel are closed will be evaluated, as it would make vehicles take an alternative route through the other roads that connects the departments of Caldas and Tolima. This accessibility analysis will be carried out using computer tools such as the TransCAD to calculate the average travel times and ArcGIS to find the isochronous curves and isochronous gradient, which allow saving the average travel time in the study area. These results will be crossed with the population and gross domestic product (GDP) to find the benefit in terms of these variables.