[BR] Brazilian Highways • Rodovias Brasileiras

[LordMandeep]

yyou get roads like that in rural places in Canada.

[AndreKenji]

Originally Posted by Verso

Tell me sth, how many kms of freeways/expressways/motorways... (min 2 lanes in each direction) does Brazil have? According to Map24 tens of thousands of kms what I seriously doubt, no offense, especially in Amazonia lol! Any experts?

I think that there must be something like one or two thousand kms.

[jamesinclair]

Originally Posted by Verso

Looks like the African-level roads ruined the thread. Great pix btw!

Tell me sth, how many kms of freeways/expressways/motorways... (min 2 lanes in each direction) does Brazil have? According to Map24 tens of thousands of kms what I seriously doubt, no offense, especially in Amazonia lol! Any experts?

The number is hard to find. I found this

"The Brazilian national network of highways is the second largest of the world. It is almost 2 million km long, with approximately 200.000 km of them paved, as of 2004. The name given to highway in Brazil is "rodovia" (expressway connecting two or more cities, or a far and important location, passing to an area outside any urban area, is the specification of "rodovia", in Brazil).

"Rodovias" can be both paved or unpaved (but almost every major Brazilian highway is paved), and can have separated lanes to each direction or not, and can have multiple lanes or only a single lane."

Remember that in Brasil, transport is done mostly by bus and truck, not trains.

Even if that number is off "tens of thousands" is pretty much guaranteed

for example:

Rodovia Belém-Brasília 1,950 km
Rodovia Transbrasiliana 3,442 km

[AndreKenji]

Originally Posted by jamesinclair

The number is hard to find. I found this

Remember that in Brasil, transport is done mostly by bus and truck, not trains.

Even if that number is off "tens of thousands" is pretty much guaranteed

for example:

Rodovia Belém-Brasília 1,950 km
Rodovia Transbrasiliana 3,442 km

Both of them are one lane in each direction.

[miamicanes]

Are there any freeway-quality roads that go all the way across the Amazon or Andes to whatever country is on the other side at that point (making it possible to conveniently drive from Rio or Sao Paolo to, say, Santiago, Lima, LaPaz, etc.)? I think I remember reading somewhere that it IS possible to drive to Buenos Aires from Rio & Sao Paolo, but not really practical to actually do it for some reason.

[AndreKenji]

Originally Posted by miamicanes

Are there any freeway-quality roads that go all the way across the Amazon or Andes to whatever country is on the other side at that point (making it possible to conveniently drive from Rio or Sao Paolo to, say, Santiago, Lima, LaPaz, etc.)?

No. I think that there is no freeway quality road longer than 500 kilometers in Brazil.

Across the amazon, most of the roads are unpaved.

Originally Posted by miamicanes

I think I remember reading somewhere that it IS possible to drive to Buenos Aires from Rio & Sao Paolo, but not really practical to actually do it for some reason.

There buses that go from Buenos Aires to São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. I don´t know the situation of the highways in the southern region of Brazil nowadays, but some years ago they were a REAL nightmare.

[nothingman]

I like the look of Brazil's highways....I'd love to take a spin on them!

I know there are bad roads too, but it must be hard as hell to build roads through the Amazon.

It's a country I'd like to visit.

[Verso]

True. I really don't mind roads in Amazonia being unpaved as long as you can ride them normally. But I really don't get why Map24 is presenting Brazil as full of freeways/motorways (I would say it looks like at least 15 - 20,000 km ). Perhaps really because they're all called Rodovías. But interesting that Portugal's using expression "autoestrada".

[Rogério Brasileiro]

Originally Posted by AndreKenji

I think that there must be something like one or two thousand kms.

Only in São Paulo State...

Almost 3,000 km only in the State of São Paulo. In entire Brazil, 7.000 km.

[Verso]

I have a feeling this could now really be the right answer! 7,000 km sounds very probable, not too much, not too little. Thanks!

[AndreKenji]

Originally Posted by Rogério Brasileiro

Only in São Paulo State...

Almost 3,000 km only in the State of São Paulo. In entire Brazil, 7.000 km.

Sources?

[AndreKenji]

Originally Posted by nothingman

I like the look of Brazil's highways....I'd love to take a spin on them!

I know there are bad roads too, but it must be hard as hell to build roads through the Amazon.

Roads outside Amazon are bad as well. In fact, there is no need to build highways in the Deep Amazon Forest to fully integrate most of the country.

[DMA Brasil]

Only the Mercosul system -linking Belo Horizonte to Porto Alegre, passing through São Paulo, Curitiba and Florianópolis - (one motorway, that is going to be fully duplicated, I think, by the end of the year) is going to be 1.500 km long, so, I think that Rogerio´s numbers are more close to the truth. In 5 years I think that we will have also the Northeastern Corridor fully duplicated, what will be more than 2.000 km long.

[LtBk]

How many kms of motorways/expressways/rodovias etc are being constructed now?

[DMA Brasil]

Honestly, I don´t know, at least 2.000km...

[miamicanes]

In fact, there is no need to build highways in the Deep Amazon Forest to fully integrate most of the country.

The point of roadbuilding to Chile, Peru, etc. isn't to integrate the country... it's to make it cheaper and easier to move goods and people back and forth, with lowered barriers to entry for starting and running companies. If the easiest way to haul goods from Santiago to Lima is by driving a truck Brazil, turning left, and driving the rest of the way to Lima, Brazil will benefit economically even if 99% of those goods don't even stay in Brazil. Because with good roads going everywhere, Brazil would ALSO be the easiest route to drive trucks to Bogota, Caracas, and Montevideo. So eventually, trucking firms would emerge that hauled truckloads of stuff from Santiago to warehouses and shipping depots in the middle of the Amazon, before shuffling it around with stuff from other trucks and sending it out to other cities.

Brazil has a HUGE advantage over most of its neighbors... it has direct land borders (or at least river borders) with just about every major country in South America. If Brazil were to aggressively push west and north with freeway-grade roads (possibly tolled), and got the neighboring countries to continue the roads on the other sides of the border (possibly as toll roads funded by Brazillian investors), it would be almost impossible for Brazil to not become the ground transportation hub for the whole continent.

If "all roads led to Brazil", care to guess where just about every mega-huge distribution company (Amazon.com, Ingram Micro, and the rest) would decide to locate their main facilities in South America?

[jamesinclair]

Originally Posted by miamicanes

Are there any freeway-quality roads that go all the way across the Amazon or Andes to whatever country is on the other side at that point (making it possible to conveniently drive from Rio or Sao Paolo to, say, Santiago, Lima, LaPaz, etc.)? I think I remember reading somewhere that it IS possible to drive to Buenos Aires from Rio & Sao Paolo, but not really practical to actually do it for some reason.

Those are two different questions. The trans-amazon highway goes from northeastern brasil to Peru



However, its more of a hole through the forest than a highway







Thus, its not exactly used to transport freight. Have fun doing so when it rains.

The southern part of the country has highways as shown on the first post. Thats the kind of road youd get from Rio-Sao Paul-Buenos Aires. Its not practical because its too far. Sao Paulo-Rio is like 8 hours.

[nothingman]

Originally Posted by AndreKenji

Roads outside Amazon are bad as well. In fact, there is no need to build highways in the Deep Amazon Forest to fully integrate most of the country.

Besides, the Amazon needs protecting as much as possible.....I doubt there's any need to build a 16 lane highway through it.

[Verso]

Originally Posted by jamesinclair

Its not practical because its too far. Sao Paulo-Rio is like 8 hours.

Unless u like it!

Isn't just 450 km between them? (according to Map24)

[DMA Brasil]

Rio-SP is officially 6 hours, but you can do on 5 (if you drive like a maniac...)