Túnel de Oriente

The Túnel de Oriente is an 8.2-kilometre (5.1 mi) long road tunnel in Antioquia Department, Colombia, which connects the Aburrá Valley metropolitan area with the adjacent San Nicolas Valley, connecting the city of Medellín with the José María Córdova International Airport in Rionegro.[1] It was opened on August 15, 2019, after a series of delays due mainly to leaks found during construction.[1] It is the second longest vehicular tunnel in Latin America , after the Tunel de la Línea, and is expected to be surpassed by the under-construction Toyo Tunnel, both of which are also in Colombia. The total cost of the project was 1.1 trillion pesos.[1]

The entire project is made up of two tunnels—the main 8.2-km long tunnel and a shorter 774-metre (2,539 ft) long-tunnel—and nine viaducts. The initial phase comprised one two-lane tube carrying traffic in both directions, but a second tube is already under construction, after the completion of which each tube will carry two lanes of traffic in one direction. It is expected that the tunnel would cut travel time between Medellín and Córdova International Airport from 45 minutes to 18 minutes.[1]