One critical element to ensuring Santander's sustainable development is having an adequate infrastructure that generates well-being and employment, attracts investment, and promotes economic growth for the department's capital and its provinces.

The Santander business community is already advancing in various activities to demonstrate its commitment to the region. The Soto Norte Project is moving forward on one of these projects and has hired the pre-feasibility studies of the Soto Norte - Bucaramanga Inter-city road.

Esta gran obra, que los habitantes de este territorio han esperado por más de un siglo, contempla un total de 98.87 kilómetros que darán una solución vial, de conectividad, desarrollo y tiempos de desplazamiento, para más de 35.600 habitantes de los 6 municipios de la provincia de Soto Norte, incluyendo Bucaramanga.

The "Soto Norte Inter-city Road" flagship project aims to improve road connectivity between Soto Norte and Bucaramanga. In addition, it seeks to improve the current conditions of the secondary roads that connect the different urban centers under the specifications and standards of the National Roads Administration (INVIAS).

The PSN will finance all studies necessary to complete the designs up to phase three as part of its pledge to regional development. This project stems from a robust corporate social responsibility program called Acuerdo Social (Social Agreements), which became a groundbreaking model of community participation where, for the first time in the history of Soto Norte, the inhabitants voted, prioritized, and chose the works and social programs that best suited their needs. In the first year alone, these social programs exceeded US$1.4 million in investments.

The first phase will be pre-feasibility. Subsequently, feasibility studies and designs will be completed to initiate, with the community’s participation, the necessary formalities before the Government and other national and international agencies to start the construction of the road.

The Social Agreement ensures that the community, in addition to choosing the projects that will benefit most people, as in the case of the inter-city road, also leads the design, execution, monitoring, oversight, and evaluation.

The community of the six municipalities of Soto Norte voted for improving road infrastructure, specifically the Soto Norte - Bucaramanga Inter-city Road, as a strategic component of regional development. The mayors of the municipalities of Soto Norte supported and endorsed this community decision and recognized the strategic importance of this project for the territory.

This inter-city road will reduce by half the travel time, which in some cases can take up to 5 hours or be inaccessible during periods of heavy rainfall. In addition, it will reduce the risk of road accidents, which in recent years have resulted in the unfortunate death of almost a dozen residents of our province. The project includes the intervention of several critical points and the stabilization of slopes, the reinforcement or construction of structures and bridges, secondary works for rainwater and runoff water control, and paving.