General objectives of the initiative. During the last years in Colombia a series of highways that seek to unify the country, characterized by mountainous geography and difficult to access. This hard infrastructure is characterized by connecting ports and important cities, passing through regions very little served by the state with a lot of poverty; the communities through which these highways pass do not receive much more than connectivity.

For this reason and on the initiative of the El equipo Mazzanti and the company Odinsa, was presented to the Colombian State, a new type of communications infrastructure and road operations. These control and operations centers (CCO) usually only served as buildings connected to the highways and their operation; without any kind of relationship with the surrounding communities. The proposal included multiplying the use of control and communications buildings with training classrooms, product collection center, market square for the products of the region, outdoor cinema, and sports fields, making CCO stop being just structures designed for efficiency and become places for building community.

The main question is: How to move from an infrastructure focused on production and optimization, to an infrastructure that focuses on the support of human and social capital and that, in turn, is capable of generating public-private alliances for its programming and sustainability? For example: How to move from a road infrastructure designed exclusively to meet logistical objectives (connection A-B) … to a network of productive and sustainable corridors, with the capacity to:  (i) mitigate climate change, (ii) adapt to the geographical, social and cultural virtues of its context, and (iii) generate economic and social development?

"Traditionally, (road infrastructure) has been used to strengthen physical connectivity to improve the functioning of markets, or with a limited focus, such as connecting mines or ports (...) But brokers can be leveraged for planning initiatives smarter, geared towards improving agricultural opportunities, achieving explicit goals such as (i) the creation of rural jobs, (ii) environmental objectives, and (iii) catalyzing better governance along value chains all of which is necessary to stimulate inclusive and sustainable growth in the developing world"

This project served as a seed for the Colombian government to convert all the new infrastructures from Control and Operations Centers to community centers in the rural regions of Colombia. All new highways in Colombia must develop community centers in accordance with the cultural and climatic characteristics of the regions through which they pass.

The project. The CCO project is a road service center, the function of which is to create a meeting place for road users. It is conceived as a center where you will find points of recreation, rest and tourist information of the area. The project seeks to have a high social impact at a regional level, seeking to become a recognizable urban landmark in the area. This aims to promote the tourist development of La Pintada, which is being projected today as a seaside resort for visitors to Medellin.

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