April 9 (UPI) -- In a matter of weeks, workers on opposite banks of the Paraguay River are expected to guide the final sections of a new international bridge into place, closing the last gap in a structure that has taken years to build and decades to imagine. The moment will attract cameras, official speeches, and a tempting conclusion that one of South America's most ambitious integration projects is finally complete.
That conclusion would be premature.
The bridge linking Porto Murtinho in Brazil's Mato Grosso do Sul state with Carmelo Peralta in Paraguay's Gran Chaco is the keystone of the Capricorn Bioceanic Corridor, a 2,400-kilometer road route meant to connect Brazil's Atlantic interior with Pacific ports in northern Chile.
Its completion will be important. But the bridge alone will not open the corridor.
A long-planned route
