The Brazilian Highway System (
Portuguese: ''Sistema Nacional de Rodovias'') is a network of
trunk roads administrated by the Ministry of Infrastructure of Brazil (MINFRA). It is constructed, managed and maintained by the National Department of Transport Infrastructure (DNIT), federal agency linked to the Ministry of Infrastructure, and the
public works departments of state governments.
The National Travel System (
Portuguese: ''Sistema Nacional de Viação –'' SNV) comprises the road infrastructure and the operational structure of the different means of transporting people and goods. As for jurisdiction, the national road system is composed of the Federal Road Traffic System (
Portuguese: Sistema Federal de Viação – SFV) and the road systems of the
States, the
Federal District and the
Municipalities.
The Investment Partnership Program (PPI) is a major effort to expand and upgrade the network of highways aside with the Federal Highway Concessions Program (PROCROFE). The Ministry of Infrastructure often uses a
public–private partnership model for highway maintenance, and toll-collection. Currently, the longest National Highway in Brazil is BR-116 with .
Characteristics
, the system consists of of roads, of which approximately are paved (12.4%), and about are
divided highways
A dual carriageway ( BE) or divided highway ( AE) is a class of highway with carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation (BrE) or median (AmE). Roads with two or more carriageways which are ...
.
The total of paved roads increased from 35,496 km (22,056 mi) in 1967 to 215,000 km (133,595 mi) in 2018, with an expansion of 0.5% between 2009 and 2019.
In 2009, Brazil had of paved road and of unpaved road per inhabitant.
In 2019, the Federal Highway System had , of which approximately were paved (86.3%), and was under federal concession (PROCROFE). The most important federal highways in the country are
BR-101 and
BR-116.
Although Brazil has the largest duplicated road network in
Latin America, it's considered insufficient for the country's needs: in 2021, it was calculated that the ideal amount of duplicated roads would be something around from to . The main road axes also have problems because they often have inadequate geometry and constructive characteristics that don't allow quality long-distance flow (non-interference from local traffic and high speed).
The
Brazilian Federal Government
The Federal Government of Brazil (''Governo Federal'') is the national government of the Federative Republic of Brazil, a republic in South America divided in 26 states and a federal district. The Brazilian federal government is divided in thre ...
has never implemented a National Highway Plan at the same level as developed countries such as the USA, Japan or European countries, which specifically aimed at inter-regional travel, and which should preferably be served by highways. The Brazilian State, despite some planning efforts, has been guided by a reactive action to the increase in demand (only duplicating some roads with old and inadequate layout) and not by a purposeful vision, directing occupation and economic density in the territory. Another problem is the lack of directing the Union Budget towards infrastructure works, since there is no law that guarantees funds from the Federal Budget for works on highways and other modes of transport, depending exclusively on the goodwill of the rulers.
Brazil even invested 1.5% of the country's budget in infrastructure in the 1970s, being the time when the most investment was made in highways; but in the 1990s, only 0.1% of the budget was invested in this sector, maintaining an average of 0.5% in the 2000s and 2010s, insufficient amounts for the construction of an adequate road network. For comparative purposes, the average investment of the USA and the European Union was 1% between 1995 and 2013, even though they already have a much more advanced road infrastructure than Brazil.
The country still has several states where paved access to 100% of the state's municipalities has not yet been reached. Some states have 100% of cities with asphalt access, such as
Santa Catarina, which reached this goal in 2014;
ParaÃba
ParaÃba ( Tupi: ''pa'ra a'Ãba''; ) is a state of Brazil. It is located in the Brazilian Northeast, and it is bordered by Rio Grande do Norte to the north, Ceará to the west, Pernambuco to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. ParaÃba ...
, which reached this goal in 2017, and
Alagoas, which reached this goal in 2021. In states like
Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative_units_of_Brazil#List, fifth-most-populous state and the List of Brazilian st ...
, in 2020, there were still 54 cities without asphalt access. In
Paraná, in 2021, there were still 4 cities without asphalt access. In
Minas Gerais, in 2016, there were still 5 cities without asphalt access.
As it is in the United States, Canada, and most countries in Europe, larger/wider highways have higher speed limits than normal urban roads (typically between and ), although minor highways, unpaved highways and sections of major highways running inside urban areas have a lower speed limit in general. The national
speed limit for cars driving in non-urban roads is unless otherwise stated, regardless of the road design, weather or daylight.
Nomenclature
Brazilian Regional highways are named YY-XXX, where YY is the abbreviation of the state where the highway is running in and XXX is a number (e.g.
SP-280; where SP means that the highway is under São Paulo state administration).
Brazilian National highways are named BR-XXX. National highways connect multiple states altogether, are of major importance to the national economy and/or connect Brazil to another country. The meaning of the numbers are:
*000-099 - it means that the highway runs radially from
BrasÃlia. It is an exception to the cases below.
*100-199 - it means that the highway runs in a south–north way
*200-299 - it means that the highway runs in a west–east way
*300-399 - it means that the highway runs in a diagonal way. Highways with odd numbers run northeast–southwest, while even numbers run northwest–southeast.
*400-499 - it means that the highway interconnects two major highways.
*600-699 - it is a special designation given to highways of national importance but that just interconnect a highway to an important location. There currently are only two such highways in the country, BR-600 which connects the
Itaipu Dam to
BR-277 and BR-610 which connects the
Guarulhos International Airport to
BR-116 and
SP-070.
Often Brazilian highways receive names (famous people, etc.), but continue to have a YY/BR-XXX name (example: Rodovia Castelo Branco is also SP-280).
See
highway system of São Paulo The highway system of São Paulo is the largest statewide road transportation system in Brazil, with 34,650 km. It consists of a hugely interconnected network of municipal (11,600 km), state (22,000 km) and federal (1,050 km) roa ...
for numbering designation for São Paulo state roads, also used in some other states.
Major Federal Brazilian Highways
BR-010
The BR-010 is a radial highway that connects the national capital
BrasÃlia, to the city of
Belém, in the state of
Pará. It has the official name of Rodovia Bernardo Sayão (the name of its chief engineer, who died in an accident during the construction of the highway, when a tree fell on him), and is also called
Belém–BrasÃlia Highway The Belém–BrasÃlia Highway (in Portuguese: ''Rodovia Belém–BrasÃlia'') is a set of portions of six federal highways of Brazil, of which each portion contributes to the function of connecting the Atlantic port city of Belém in the northern ...
or as Transbrasiliana Highway, in the stretch between the city of
Estreito, in the state of
Maranhão, and the city of Belém. This is due to the fact that between BrasÃlia and Estreito, the highway has many incomplete and unpaved stretches, especially in the state of
Tocantins. Between BrasÃlia and Estreito, the original route of the Belém-BrasÃlia Highway follows the
BR-060
BR-060 is a federal highway of Brazil. The 1329 kilometre road connects BrasÃlia to Bela Vista, on the Paraguayan border.
It is also designated as part of the Belém–BrasÃlia Highway, in its stretch between BrasÃlia and Anápolis.
Duplic ...
, the
BR-153 and the
BR-226
BR-226 is a Brazilian federal highway that connects the cities of Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, and Wanderlândia, Tocantins. The highway leaves Natal, cuts the state of Ceará in half, arrives in the capital of Piauà (Teresina) and then cuts the s ...
highways, which are completely paved in this stretch. The BR-010 passes through the
Federal District, and the states of
Goiás,
Tocantins,
Maranhão and
Pará.
BR-020
The BR-020 connects
Fortaleza
Fortaleza (, locally , Portuguese for ''Fortress'') is the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeastern Brazil. It belongs to the Metropolitan mesoregion of Fortaleza and microregion of Fortaleza. It is Brazil's 5th largest city and the t ...
in
Ceará
Ceará (, pronounced locally as or ) is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic coast. It is the eighth-largest Brazilian State by population and the 17th by area. It is also one of the ...
to the federal capital
BrasÃlia. Like other BRs that start with the number 0, it leaves BrasÃlia to an extreme point in Brazil. The highway is important because passes through the MATOPIBA region (in the south of Piauà and in the west of Bahia), which is an important producer of
soybeans
The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean, which has numerous uses.
Traditional unfermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk, from which tofu and ...
,
corn
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maÃz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...
and
cotton, among other products. It connects the interior of the Northeast to the Port of Mucuripe, in Fortaleza.
BR-040
BR-040 runs radially from near the national capital BrasÃlia (beginning 100 km south of the beginning of BR-050, in BrasÃlia), in a northwest–southeast way, to Rio de Janeiro city.
BR-040 is the modern way of the so-called "
Caminho Novo", opened in the 18th century that linked
Ouro Preto
Ouro Preto (, ''Black Gold''), formerly Vila Rica (, ''Rich Village''), is a city in and former capital of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, a former colonial mining town located in the Serra do Espinhaço mountains and designated a World Herita ...
, the main center of gold mines of
Minas Gerais to the
Rio de Janeiro harbor.
In 1861 the road was paved from
Petrópolis to
Juiz de Fora, becoming the first road paved in Latin America until the 1920s. In 1928, Petrópolis was connected to Rio de Janeiro with a paved road.
In the 1930s the route was changed to pass by the new capital of Minas Gerais,
Belo Horizonte
Belo Horizonte (, ; ) is the sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a population around 2.7 million and with a metropolitan area of 6 million people. It is the 13th-largest city in South America and the 18th-largest in the Americas. The metropol ...
, although it was unpaved until 1957, when the road was extended to BrasÃlia, the new capital of Brazil.
From 1951 to 1973 BR-040 was called BR-3 and was famous for its dangerous bends, such as the Viaduto das Almas, near Belo Horizonte, disabled in 2010. In the 1970s the part from Rio de Janeiro to Juiz de Fora was modernized and became a two-laned road.
Cities where the BR-040 runs or passes by:
Luislândia
Luislândia is a municipality in the north of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. As of 2020 the population was 6,718 in a total area of . It became a municipality in 1997.
Location
Luislândia is located at an elevation of , . southeast of t ...
, Belo Horizonte, Juiz de Fora, Rio de Janeiro.
BR-050
BR-050 runs radially from the national capital, BrasÃlia, in a north–south way, to Santos city, passing in São Paulo. It's one of the most important highways in the country: being close to being fully duplicated in 2021, it passes through some of the richest regions of Brazil. It links areas of large agricultural and industrial production to
Port of Santos, the largest in the country. BrasÃlia is the city with the highest average salary per inhabitant. Goiás is one of the largest national producers of sugarcane, soy, corn and tomatoes, in addition to having a large cattle ranching. The area between Uberaba and Uberlândia, in Minas Gerais, has the largest milk production in Brazil. The state of São Paulo holds 30% of Brazil's industrial GDP and a gigantic agricultural sector. In Ribeirão Preto there is the largest production of sugarcane in the world. In Franca, there is the largest national production of men's shoes. The highway also drains the gigantic production of coffee from Minas Gerais and orange juice from São Paulo. In the area around Campinas there is a great technological production. 40% of the cars produced in the country come from the cities of Greater São Paulo. Not to mention the production of chicken meat and all industrial production in São Paulo, which is basically exported via Santos.
BR-060
This road connects
BrasÃlia to
Bela Vista
Bela Vista (also known as ''Bexiga'' or ''Bixiga'') is one of the most traditional Italian neighborhoods in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. It belongs to the borough of Sé, and it has been a mixed neighborhood since its beginning, where free A ...
, on the
Paraguayan border. The highway is important because helps in the flow of agricultural production in the Center-West Region, which specializes in: soybeans, corn, sugarcane, tomatoes, beans, in the planting of eucalyptus for the production of cellulose and paper, and in cattle raising. Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul also have considerable mineral exploration, producing a lot of iron ore, nickel and copper, in addition to gold, manganese and niobium. The BR-060 will in the future serve as a link with the Bioceanic Corridor that is being built with 3 other South American countries, connecting Campo Grande to Antofagasta, passing through Paraguay, northern Argentina and northern Chile.
BR-101
BR-101 runs in a north–south way, along Brazil's eastern coast. It is Brazil's second major highway, and the longest in the country (nearly long). It connects more states capitals than any other "rodovia" in the country, in the total, 12 capitals are directly connected by BR-101. It's considered one of the most important highways in the country, along with BR-116: as it is a highway with a trans-coastal nature, it allows the connection between ports, major consumer centers and tourist areas. Used both by tourists who explore the coast, and for the transport of local and regional road loads such as those destined for or coming from ports and industries.
The
Rio–Niterói Bridge
The President Costa e Silva Bridge, commonly known as the Rio–Niterói Bridge, is a box girder bridge crossing Guanabara Bay, in the State of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. It connects the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Niterói. It is currently the s ...
is part of the BR-101.
Cities where the BR-101 runs or passes by:
Natal,
João Pessoa,
Olinda
Olinda () is a historic city in Pernambuco, Brazil, in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region. It is located on the country's northeastern Atlantic Ocean coast, in the Recife metropolitan area, Metropolitan Region of Recife, the state capi ...
,
Recife,
Maceió,
Aracaju,
Feira de Santana,
Itabuna,
Ilhéus,
Porto Seguro,
Linhares
Linhares is the name of a municipality in the state of EspÃrito Santo, Brazil, north of the state capital, Vitória. It is the largest municipality by area in the state, at 9,501.6 km², and has a population of 176,688 people (2020).
The ...
,
Vitória,
Guarapari,
Niterói
Niterói (, ) is a Municipalities of Brazil, municipality of the state of Rio de Janeiro (state), Rio de Janeiro in the Southeast Region, Brazil, southeast region of Brazil. It lies across Guanabara Bay facing the city of Rio de Janeiro and forms ...
,
Rio de Janeiro,
Barra Mansa,
Santos,
Curitiba,
Joinville,
Florianópolis
Florianópolis () is the capital and second largest city of the state of Santa Catarina, in the South region of Brazil. The city encompasses Santa Catarina Island and surrounding small islands, as well as part of the mainland. It has a populat ...
,
Criciúma,
Osório.
BR-116
BR-116 runs in a north–south way, near, but not on Brazil's coastline. It is considered one of the most important highways in the country, along with
BR-101. It's also the second longest of the country, although, in practice, it is currently the one with the greatest extension built (). The highway is one of the main connections for the transport of loads, receiving thousands of trucks every day. Numerous parts of the long path taken by the BR-116 have other official names, such as Régis Bittencourt, Presidente Dutra, Santos Dumont, among others.
Cities where the BR-116 runs or passes by:
Fortaleza
Fortaleza (, locally , Portuguese for ''Fortress'') is the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeastern Brazil. It belongs to the Metropolitan mesoregion of Fortaleza and microregion of Fortaleza. It is Brazil's 5th largest city and the t ...
,
Salgueiro
Salgueiro is a city in Pernambuco, Brazil. It is located in the mesoregion of ''Sertão Pernambucano'' . Salgueiro covers an area of 1687 square kilometers and had in 2020 an estimated population of 61,249 inhabitants.
It is the see city of the R ...
,
Feira de Santana,
Vitória da Conquista
Vitória da Conquista is a Municipalities of Brazil, municipality in Bahia, Brazil, that has a population of approximately 341,000 people as of 2020, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Ge ...
,
Teófilo Otoni,
Governador Valadares,
Rio de Janeiro,
Volta Redonda
Volta Redonda () is the name of a Municipalities of Brazil, municipality in the Rio de Janeiro (state), Rio de Janeiro state of Brazil with an area of 182.81 km2, located from 350m to 707m above the sea level (22°31'23" S, 44°06'15" W) an ...
,
São José dos Campos,
São Paulo,
Curitiba,
Lages,
Caxias do Sul
Caxias do Sul (), is a city in Rio Grande do Sul, Southern Brazil, situated in the state's mountainous Serra Gaúcha region. It was established by Italian immigrants on June 20, 1890. Today it is the second largest city in the state of Rio Gr ...
,
Canoas
Canoas (), which earned city status in 1939, is a municipality in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. With more than 340,000 inhabitants, it is part of the Porto Alegre conurbation and has the second highest GDP in the state. It is also th ...
,
Porto Alegre,
Pelotas.
BR-153
Also known as Transbrasiliana Highway, as
Belém–BrasÃlia Highway The Belém–BrasÃlia Highway (in Portuguese: ''Rodovia Belém–BrasÃlia'') is a set of portions of six federal highways of Brazil, of which each portion contributes to the function of connecting the Atlantic port city of Belém in the northern ...
or even as Bernardo Sayão Highway, the BR-153 is one of the longest highways in South America and runs in the north–south direction, connecting the city of
Marabá, in the state of
Pará, and the city of
Aceguá, in the boundary with
Uruguay. It passes through the states of
Pará,
Tocantins,
Goiás,
Minas Gerais (
Triângulo Mineiro region),
São Paulo,
Paraná,
Santa Catarina and
Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative_units_of_Brazil#List, fifth-most-populous state and the List of Brazilian st ...
. The BR-153 is one of the main highways of the central region of Brazil, mainly in the states of Goiás and Tocantins, and also in the
Triângulo Mineiro region. The highway works as an important channel for the flow of agricultural production (mainly soy, corn, sugar cane, cotton and tomato) and livestock (mainly beef and pork) in the Midwest, transports milk production from Minas Gerais and coffee from São Paulo, and agricultural products (rice, wheat, barley, soybeans, corn, grapes, apples, oats), livestock (chicken, pork, fish, and milk) and industrial (furniture, footwear, textiles, machinery, etc.) of the Southern region.
BR-277
BR-277 runs east–west, starting from the
Friendship Bridge, which connects Brazilian city
Foz do Iguaçu to Paraguayan
Ciudad del Este, and going up to the port city of
Paranaguá. It is approximately 650 km long. The highway is of great economic importance for both Brazil and Paraguay, as it connects the Brazil-Paraguay border to the
Port of Paranaguá (which exits into the Atlantic Ocean).
It is one of the most important highways in the Southern Region of Brazil, as it connects Curitiba (the capital city of the state of
Paraná and the third highest city GDP in Brazil) to the city of Paranaguá and to the international border city of Foz de Iguaçu, one of the most-frequented touristic destinations in Brazil (mainly due to border trade, to the presence of the Iguaçu Falls and the
Itaipu Dam). In Paraná, there is a large production of soybeans, corn, chicken, milk, cellulose and fish, among other products, which are exported through the Port of Paranaguá (among other international connections).
For Paraguay, BR-277 is also of economical significance as it has a direct connection with
Asunción through
Route PY-02 and serves as an exit to the Atlantic Ocean. On the Brazil-Paraguay border there is intense trade between the two countries. and Paraguay uses the port to carry out part of its exports through the Atlantic Ocean.
Major Brazilian cities connected by BR-277 are
Foz do Iguaçu,
Medianeira,
Cascavel,
Guarapuava,
Ponta Grossa,
Curitiba, and
Paranaguá.
BR-369
BR-369 begins in
Oliveira,
Minas Gerais and ends in
Cascavel in the state of
Paraná.
This highway is of extreme economical importance as it is used to transport products from agriculture, livestock and industry from the states of Paraná to São Paulo and vice versa - for example, soy, corn, coffee, beef, paper and cellulose, wood, furniture and other important products in the region. It also connects the western states of Paraná and São Paulo to
Paraguay. Paraguay imports most of the products it consumes from Brazil (one of the main promoters of the Paraguayan economy). Therefore, trade and tourism with Paraguay are strong in the region.
Foz do Iguaçu and
Ciudad del Este benefit directly from the highway.
BR-376
The road connects the cities of
Garuva
Garuva is a municipality in the state of Santa Catarina in the South region of Brazil.
See also
*List of municipalities in Santa Catarina
This is a list of the municipalities in the state of Santa Catarina (SC), located in the South Region of ...
, in the state of
Santa Catarina, to
Dourados,
Mato Grosso do Sul
Mato Grosso do Sul () is one of the Midwestern states of Brazil. Neighboring Brazilian states are (from north clockwise) Mato Grosso, Goiás, Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Paraná. It also borders the countries of Paraguay, to the southwest, and ...
. It has a length of 958,3 km. The road is very important to transport agricultural, livestock and industrial products from the states of Paraná and Mato Grosso do Sul. As some examples, we have soy, corn, coffee, beef, paper and cellulose, wood, furniture and other important products. in the region.
BR-386
This highway connects Canoas (in the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre, capital of the state of Rio Grande do Sul) with the municipality of Iraà (in the extreme northwest of the state, on the border with Santa Catarina).
It's called the Production Highway due to its high importance for the state. Through it all the production of soy, corn, wheat, meat, wood, furniture, among other products of the region is drained. In the city of
Ametista do Sul
Ametista do Sul is a municipality in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. It borders Planalto, Frederico Westphalen, Cristal do Sul, Rodeio Bonito and IraÃ. The municipality is known for the amethyst mines in the area. The center of town has ...
, close to IraÃ, there is the largest production of amethyst in the world. Close to
Lajeado is one of the largest productions of
tobacco on the planet. In Santa Catarina, the highway ends near
Chapecó, the largest regional hub in the west of the state. In general, cities with significant GDP are on the side of the highway.
http://g1.globo.com/rs/rio-grande-do-sul/nossa-terra/2013/noticia/2013/07/pedras-de-ametista-sao-atrativos-para-turistas-em-cidade-no-norte-do-rs.html
/ref>
References
Bibliography
* Michel Braudeau
Michel Braudeau (born 1946 in Niort) is a French writer.http://www.gallimard.fr/Contributeurs/Michel-Braudeau (page visited on 19 August 2013).
He was editor-in-chief of the ''Nouvelle revue française'', from 1999 to 2010.
Works
* ''L'Amazo ...
, « L'autoroute de l'amertume », in ''Le rêve amazonien'', éditions Gallimard
Éditions Gallimard (; formerly Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française (1911–1919) and Librairie Gallimard (1919–1961) is one of the leading French book publishers. In 2003 it and its subsidiaries published 1,418 titles.
Founded by Gasto ...
, 2004 ().
External links
*
São Paulo Detran
{{Portal bar, Transport, Brazil