The Bank Information Centre, which describes itself as a pressure group working with transitional and developing countries to get social and environmental justice by placing pressure on the world bank and other finance institutions, has a comprehensive page containing extensive documentation about the interoceanic highway and its projected environmental impact.

Amongst other things, this includes the full report (in spanish) by environmental campaigner Marc Dourojeanni, on the projected implications of the road for the ecosystem of the Peruvian Amazon.

Derrumbe!

One of the things we have been interested in is the instabilities in the land that roads have to contend with. Here are two youtube videos of TramoIV which goes through the department of Puno. The first is a controlled explosion, the second a dramatic unplanned landslide.

1.

2.

NPR Radio Show about Interoceanic Highway

From tomorrow (8th September) NPR’s All Things Considered radio show will be broadcasting four programmes about the impact of the interoceanic highway.

On Roads by Joe Moran

 

‘On Roads’ is a new book that has just come out this month, all about the history and cultural life of British Roads.  It has been widely reviewed in places like the Guardian, the Telegraph and the New Statesman . Joe also has his own blog on ’the everday, the banal and other important matters!’.

Road Studies

I have just been told about another ethnographer of the road – Daniel Normark, based at the Mobility Studio Stockholm. He’s done an ethnography of petrol stations, as well as some other studies of road users and works in the tradition of Science and Technology studies.

Another Interoceanic Inauguration

President Alan Garcia has just inaugurated another section of the interoceanic highway – this time between Planchon and Iberia – on the stretch of road between Puerto Maldonado and the border with Brazil.

Interoceanica Border Summit

Next week (0n the 28th April) Presidents Alan Garcia (Peru) and Luis Inacio Lula da Silva (Brazil) are meeting in the Brazilan town of Rio Branco to discuss the economic impact of the interoceanic highway being built between the border with Brazil and the coast of Peru. More details here:

Investing in Africa’s Roads

This recent Guardian newspaper article captures something of how important roads are in development discourse. Perhaps more interesting are the comments posted below it.

Charlie Meecham’s M62 Site

This looks like a great photographic project from 1998 which traced the M62 from Hull to Liverpool.

New Civil Engineer article on Interoceanic Highway

A recent article from New Civil Engineer Magazine on the Interoceanic Highway:

“Crossing the Andes: Peru’s Interoceanic Highway

Contractors completing the Interoceanic highway over the Peruvian Andes and through the Amazonian Jungle are facing Herculean challenges.”