- Rodovia Presidente Dutra
The Rodovia Presidente Dutra, (BR-116 – SP-60), colloquially known as Via Dutra is a federal highway which runs through the eastern part of the state of São Paulo and southwestern region of the state Rio de Janeiro. It is the part of BR-116 connecting the city of São Paulo to the city of Rio de Janeiro.
Major cities connected by this part of BR-116 are the city of São Paulo,
Jacareí ,São José dos Campos ,Taubaté ,Pindamonhangaba ,Guaratinguetá , Resende,Barra Mansa and the city of Rio de Janeiro.It covers a total distance of convert|402|km, starting at the Trevo das Margaridas in Rio de Janeiro and ending at the junction with Marginal Tietê in São Paulo. It merges with
Rodovia Ayrton Senna in the county of Guararema and has junctions withRodovia Fernão Dias , BR-354 and BR-459. The highway largely follows theParaíba do Sul river valley.Via Dutra is considered the most important Brazilian highway since it connects the two biggest and most important cities of
Brazil and runs through the richest region of the country, the Paraíba Valley. It is also the most important connection between the Southern Region and the Northeast Region.History
The first road between the city of São Paulo and the city of Rio de Janeiro was built by the Washington Luis government and inaugurated on
May 5 ,1928 .At the end of the 1940s industrialization and the necessity of a faster, safer and more efficient and modern road connection of the two biggest Brazilian cities led to the construction of the Rodovia Presidente Dutra as it is known today. It was inaugurated on
January 19 ,1951 by the President Eurico Gaspar Dutra and called BR-2. It was a two-lane road with exception of the stretches between São Paulo and Guarulhos and in theBaixada Fluminense where it was a four-lane dual carriageway.In the 1960s it had various stretches converted to four-lane divided road. In 1967 it was fully upgraded to four-lane highway status.
In the 1970s traffic has been eased on the Via Dutra due to the construction of the Rodovia dos Trabalhadores, now called
Rodovia Ayrton Senna and its part built in the 1990s calledRodovia Governador Carvalho Pinto leading up toTaubaté .The highway is managed and maintained by a state concession to the private company NovaDutra S/A since March 1996, and therefore is a toll road. From that transfer of ownership up to today it has largely improved in road quality and safety.
See also
*
Highway system of São Paulo
*Brazilian Highway System External links
* [http://www.novadutra.com.br/concessionaria/home/ NovaDutra S/A]
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