BR-285 is an east-west Brazilian federal highway that starts in Araranguá, Santa Catarina, and crosses the Gaucho range and highlands. It stretches approximately 674.5 km, passing through cities such as

Vacaria Vacaria is a municipality in the northeast of the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. It is located at a latitude of 28° 30' 44" South and a longitude of 50° 56' 02" west, with an altitude of 971 meters. Its population in 2020 wa ...

, Lagoa Vermelha,

Passo Fundo Passo Fundo is a municipality in the north of the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. It is named after its river. It's the twelfth largest city in the state with an estimated population of 204,722 inhabitants living in a total municipa ...

Carazinho Carazinho is a city located 246 km from Porto Alegre, in the northwest portion of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Carazinho-RS was founded on 1931 and as of 2020 has a population of 62,265. Carazinho's primary economy is focused on ...

Ijuí Ijuí () is a Brazilian municipality of Rio Grande do Sul, situated from the state capital, Porto Alegre. In 2020 its population was 83,764, making it the third most populous city of the Missões region, behind Passo Fundo and Erechim. Demogr ...

São Luiz Gonzaga São Luiz Gonzaga (Portuguese for St. Aloysius Gonzaga) is a municipality of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Its population is 33,293 (2020 est.) in an area of 1295,68 km². It was founded in the 17th century as a Jesuit mission to ...

, and ends in

São Borja São Borja is a city in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. São Borja is the oldest municipality in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul and was founded in 1682 by the Jesuits as the first of the Seven Points of the Missions, and name ...

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 ...

, on the border of

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. During the summer months, BR-285 receives a large flow of vehicles from Argentina, heading for the beaches of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina. The journey is between São Borja (border with Argentina) and Vacaria. From there, drivers who decide to spend the summer on the gaucho beaches descend to Caxias do Sul to take the Ruta del Sol to Terra de Areia. Another alternative is to ascend to Lages, already in the state of Santa Catarina, and from there continue to Florianópolis. The section between Vacaria and Araranguá, in addition to crossing a part of the mountains, has a low road infrastructure. There is an unpaved section between the cities of São José dos Ausentes and Timbé do Sul, so the movement of vehicles is very low. In August 2020, only 8 km remained to complete the paving of BR-285, between the city of São José dos Ausentes and the border with Santa Catarina. Último trecho asfaltado da BR-285, na Serra, completa 10 anos em meio à expectativa de conclusão da estrada
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Gallery

BR-285 Rio Grande do Sul - Brasil.jpg, BR-285 in Lagoa Vermelha. BR-285_em_Panambi.jpg, BR-285 in

Panambi Panambi is a municipality in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. As of 2020, the estimated population was 44,128. See also *List of municipalities in Rio Grande do Sul This is a list of the municipalities in the state of Rio Grande do Sul ...

, in Northwestern Rio Grande do Sul. Ponte_Caxambu.jpg, Bridge on the Caxambu River on BR-285 in Panambi.

References

{{Federal roads of Brazil Federal highways in Brazil