The Maldonado Stream (''Arroyo Maldonado'') is an underground

storm sewer A storm drain, storm sewer (United Kingdom, U.S. and Canada), surface water drain/sewer (United Kingdom), or stormwater drain ( Australia and New Zealand) is infrastructure designed to drain excess rain and ground water from impervious surfa ...

in the city

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the Capital city, capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata ...

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, t ...

, that runs below

Juan B. Justo Juan Bautista Justo (June 28, 1865, in Buenos Aires – January 8, 1928, in Buenos Aires) was an Argentine physician, journalist, politician, and writer. After finishing medical school he joined the Civic Union of the Youth, later participating i ...

Avenue. Originally a stream draining into the

Río de la Plata The Río de la Plata (, "river of silver"), also called the River Plate or La Plata River in English, is the estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River at Punta Gorda. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean and f ...

, its length goes through 10 of the 47

barrios Barrios is a Spanish surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Agustín Barrios (1885–1944), Paraguayan guitarist and composer *Ángel Barrios (1882–1964), Spanish guitarist and composer *Arturo Barrios (born 1962), Mexican athlet ...

of the city: Versalles,

Liniers Liniers is a barrio (neighborhood) of Buenos Aires on the edge of the city, centered on Rivadavia Avenue. It is also an important train station and bus hub, connecting western Gran Buenos Aires with the Buenos Aires Metro. The neighborhood devel ...

Villa Luro Villa Luro is a ''barrio'' (district) of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is located near the western end of the City of Buenos Aires. The district owes its name to Dr. Pedro Luro, a prominent local physician and real-estate developer who, during the ...

, Vélez Sarsfield, Floresta, Villa Santa Rita,

Villa Mitre Villa General Mitre is a neighborhood, or ''barrio'', of Buenos Aires. The ward has a land area of , and a population of 36,000. It was named after General Bartolomé Mitre, President of Argentina from 1862 to 1868. Villa Mitre was developed on ...

Caballito Caballito (; Spanish for "little horse") is a '' barrio'' (neighborhood) of the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires. It is the only ''barrio'' in the administrative division ''Comuna'' 6. It is located in the geographical centre of the city, limit ...

Villa Crespo Villa Crespo is a middle class neighborhood in Buenos Aires, Argentina, located in the geographical center of the city. It had a population of 83,646 people in 2001, and thus currently a population density of 23,235 inhabitants/km2. Villa Crespo c ...

, and

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The city is noted for it ...

. The stream was one of the natural limits of the city, before the

Belgrano Belgrano may refer to: People * Joaquín Belgrano (1773–1848), an Argentine patriot * José Denis Belgrano (1844–1917), Spanish painter * Joseph Belgrano (1762–1823), Argentine military officer and politician, brother of Manuel * Manuel Belg ...

and Flores neighborhoods were incorporated. It is named after the legend of , a woman who arrived with

Pedro de Mendoza Pedro de Mendoza () (c. 1499 – June 23, 1537) was a Spanish '' conquistador'', soldier and explorer, and the first ''adelantado'' of New Andalusia. Setting sail Pedro de Mendoza was born in Guadix, Grenada, part of a large noble family tha ...

in 1536, and was abandoned in the plain, on the margins of the stream. The stream became a garbage dump in time, and during the rainy season became a polluted waterway made dangerous because of its overflows. The authorities decided via a municipal ordinance on August 25, 1924, to tube the stream as a final solution to all the problems that caused in a growing city, and in 1928 excavations started. The Maldonado drainage system, one of the most significant public works ever built in Buenos Aires, was designed as a part of a broader drainage system in the city; it was commissioned and designed by the state-owned ''Obras Sanitarias de la Nación'' and engineered by German firm

Siemens-Schuckert Siemens-Schuckert (or Siemens-Schuckertwerke) was a German electrical engineering company headquartered in Berlin, Erlangen and Nuremberg that was incorporated into the Siemens AG in 1966. Siemens Schuckert was founded in 1903 when Siemens & Ha ...

. The excavation phase required hundreds of workers and machinery. The second phase, begun in 1929, consisted of rising columns to support a gigantic slab, for which 5000 tons of

rebar Rebar (short for reinforcing bar), known when massed as reinforcing steel or reinforcement steel, is a steel bar used as a tension device in reinforced concrete and reinforced masonry structures to strengthen and aid the concrete under tension. ...

, 20000 tons of

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel (aggregate) together. Cement m ...

, 55000 tons of sand, and 70000 tons of

gravel Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gravel is classif ...

were used. Following these tubing and drainage works completed in 1933, a large packed soil road was erected over the stream in 1934. This road was re-inaugurated on July 9, 1937, as Juan B. Justo Avenue. Persistent seasonal flooding along the northwest stretch of the former Maldonado Stream caused by drainage overflow (which affected up to 266,000 people yearly) prompted Mayor Aníbal Ibarra in 2005 to announce complementary drain works. Ghella, a local contractor, presented the winning bid in 2007, and work began on the alleviating tunnels the following year. The first of the two new tunnels was completed in 2011, and measured in length. Work on the second, larger tunnel began in 2010 and was completed in 2012; it measured in length, required 200,000 cubic meters (7 million cubic feet) of cement, and cost USD200 million.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maldonado Stream Rivers of Argentina Rivers of Buenos Aires Rivers of Buenos Aires Province Subterranean rivers