Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 67, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 March 1912 — ports of Argentina [ARTICLE]

ports of Argentina

Southern Republic Adds to Harbor Facilities. Plan Docks for New Dreadnought*— Extension of Railway Lines to All Parts of the Country Being Rapidly Pushed. Buenos Aires, Argentine Republic.— In 1911 the Argentine government devoted much attention to the opening of new ports on the rivers and on the coast of the Atlantic or to amplifying those at present in existence in order to provide for the increased maritime trade with neighboring and foreign countries. Among these may be mentioned the work of enlarging the port of Mar del Plata, known as, “The Brighton of Argentina,” which is now being carried out, while the Port Argentine Great Central Railways company has obtained a concession from the government to construct and work an Atlantic port in the bay of Samborombon, about 100 miles from the city of Buenos Aires, and a system of railways, comprising about 540 miles of lines, connecting the port with the principal railways of the republic. The first section of the harbor works, now in course of construction under the direction of Engineer Jean Slllard, is to be completed in eight years and will have a capacity sufficient to accommodate sea going vessels to an aggregate of not less than 60,000 tons. The harbor concession is granted for ninety-nine years from April 2, 1910, and all lands for a distance of nine miles of foreshore on the bay reclaimed from the sea below the highest water mark have been granted in perpetuity subject to a small strip which reverts to the government after ninety-nine years. The lines of this company, from the port of Somborombon, will cofinect with those of the Great Southern railway, the Western railway and the Pacific. The Northeastern Railway company has been authorized to construct and exploit for the term of thirty years the mole at the port of Goya. The government has also Tecently approved the project for the amplification, dredging, etc., of the port of Gualeguaychu. With the building this year in the United States of the two “dreadnoughts,” named Moreno and Rivadavia, docks will have to be provided for their repair and overhaul; therefore arrangements have been made by the government for constructing such docks at the military port near Bahia Blanca. For the smaller class of naval vessels the British engineers and shipbuilders, Messrs. Vickers & Schneider, are about to establish the necessary work shops and docks at

Rio Santiago, near the port of La Plata. Hope for the future progress of the republic is in the extension of railways with their branches throughout the principal parts of the territory, thereby enabling the products of the soil to be conveyed rapidly to home ports and thence to the foreign markets. Much has already been done in this respect. In fact, Argentina, with only

7,000,000 inhabitants, has railways in operation over a combined length of more than 31,000 kilometers (19,225 miles) and congress has recently sanctioned new railway concessions to the present British companies, several private individuals, as well as those to be constructed by the state, having a combined extent of nearly 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles), estimate I to cost more than $80,000,000 in gold.