Agua Negra Pass

Paso de Agua Negra
Signs marking the border between Argentina and Chile at the top of Paso de Agua Negra.
Paso de Agua Negra is located in Argentina
Paso de Agua Negra
Paso de Agua Negra
Location within Argentina
Elevation4,775 m (15,666 ft)
Third Approach
LocationArgentina–Chile border
RangeAndes
Coordinates30°11′32″S 69°49′06″W / 30.192222°S 69.818333°W / -30.192222; -69.818333

The Agua Negra Pass (Spanish: Paso de Agua Negra) is a pass over the Andes Mountains which connects Argentina and Chile. The highest point of this pass is at 4,780 m (15,680 ft) AMSL.[1]

Agua Negra Tunnel

To improve trade between Chile and Argentina, a 14 km, three-bore vehicular tunnel (two for traffic and one for ventilation[2]) below the pass was planned, allowing year-round traffic.[3][4] (The pass is closed for much of the winter.)

In March 2015, Argentina officially approved the project.[5]

In 2018, the bidding contest for the tunnel project between construction companies took place. The whole project was budgeted at 1.5 billion dollars.[6]

Also proposed for the deepest part of the tunnel was the Agua Negra Deep Experiment Site (ANDES) (ANDES):[2] an underground laboratory. Because all currently operating deep underground laboratories are located in the Northern Hemisphere, a Southern Hemisphere site would have some unique benefits:

  • Combined with existing neutrino detectors, a longer baseline would allow more accurate localization of sources in neutrino astronomy, and
  • When searching for dark matter, there is expected to be a seasonal variation due to the Earth's motion around the Sun. But such a signal could also be an error, caused by some subtle seasonal effect. Confirmation from a location with opposite seasons would rule out such an error.

ANDES is not expected to be ready before 2027.[7]: 6, 8, 13 

In 2020, the Chilean government under President Sebastián Piñera rejected the IADB loan for the tunnel, halting the project.[8][9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "PASO INTERNACIONAL "SAN FRANCISCO"". gendarmeria.gob.ar. Gendarmeria Nacional Argentina. Archived from the original on 2015-02-27. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
  2. 1 2 "The ANDES laboratory: Proposed laboratory design". Retrieved 2015-04-25.
  3. ↑ Kenyon, Peter (December 2011). "Andes link a priority for Chile-Argentina-Brazil". TunnelTalk. Retrieved 2015-04-25.
  4. ↑ "Agua Negra Tunnel". Retrieved 2015-04-25.
  5. ↑ "Argentina Approved Construction of Tunnel Agua Negra to Join Chile". Latin American Association of Ports and Terminals. March 23, 2015. Retrieved 2015-04-25.
  6. ↑ "Agua Negra Tunnel - Verdict Traffic". www.roadtraffic-technology.com. Retrieved 2023-12-01.
  7. ↑ Aldo, Ianni (27 July 2017). Status of Underground Labs. XV International Conference on Topics in Astroparticle and Underground Physics (TAUP2017). Sudbury, Canada. Retrieved 2017-10-14.
  8. ↑ "San Juan pidió reunión urgente con Chile tras freno al túnel binacional de Agua Negra". 16 December 2020. Retrieved 10 July 2025.
  9. ↑ "Bielsa: "Chile efectivamente renunció al crédito del BID para el Túnel de Agua Negra"". 4 December 2020. Archived from the original on 27 January 2021. Retrieved 10 July 2025.


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