Montevideo’s “biggest project in 100 years” goes beyond transport, with expropriations and new land values expected

Montevideo’s planned transport overhaul could change far more than the way passengers move through the capital. City officials say the project may require expropriations and could reshape land values along the routes used by the new buses.

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It will surely be the largest project Montevideo and the metropolitan area in general have had in the last 100 years, so its scale goes far beyond transport and mobility.

The reform remains at the conceptual design stage, although its broad structure has already been defined. Bi-articulated buses carrying more than 200 passengers would travel in exclusive lanes along two main corridors. One route would connect El Pinar with Ciudad Vieja through Giannattasio, Avenida Italia and 18 de Julio. The other would run from Zonamerica to Ciudad Vieja through Camino Maldonado, 8 de Octubre and 18 de Julio.

Fiorella Contreras, manager of Production, Management and Information Analysis in the city’s Planning Department, described the proposal as potentially the largest project Montevideo and its metropolitan area have seen in a century. She said its scale extends beyond transport and mobility because the system would help structure the wider territory.

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This system is a structuring element that evidently affects and structures the entire territory, and we must adapt and integrate it into planning.

The department is also identifying “areas of opportunity” linked to mobility projects, with a target of doing so by 2027. Officials want to create a three-dimensional model of the Avenida Italia, 8 de Octubre and 18 de Julio corridors to better visualize their urban structure and assess possible changes. They also plan to expand the Land Value Observatory across the three corridors.

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areas of opportunity