Announced in 1970 to integrate the Amazon, the 4,000 km highway remains mostly unpaved and impassable in rain. Settlers who followed it faced malaria and failed farms. A result of the hubris of conquering nature.
Vitalino Pimenta, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
A Grandiose Plan
In 1970, Brazil's military government, led by President Emílio Garrastazu Médici, announced the National Integration Program (PIN). The program's centerpiece was the Rodovia Transamazônica (BR-230), a 4,000-kilometer highway designed to cut east-west across the Amazon basin. The goal was twofold: to populate the vast, "empty" interior and to provide a solution for landless farmers from the drought-stricken northeast. The government's slogan was "land without men for men without land." The project was originally planned as a fully paved, 5,200 km road connecting Brazil's Atlantic coast to Peru and Ecuador, integrating the remote region into the national economy and securing its borders.
Construction began in October 1970, with crews working at a rapid pace. The first 1,254-kilometer unpaved segment was inaugurated on September 27, 1972. The government offered 250-acre lots, a six-month salary, and agricultural loans to entice settlers. The plan was to settle 70,000 families by 1974. This project was executed with minimal preliminary surveys, relying on small planes and boats to access the remote construction sites.
A Quagmire of Failure
The project quickly encountered severe obstacles. The Amazon's geology proved fundamentally unsuited for this type of construction. The tropical soils, once cleared of vegetation, became unstable. During the rainy season, from October to March, large unpaved sections of the clay and dirt road dissolve into impassable mud, trapping vehicles for weeks and leaving crops to rot. The plan to settle tens of thousands of families was a disaster; by 1974, only about 6,000 had arrived. The settlers discovered that the rainforest soil was thin and quickly exhausted of nutrients, leading to crop failures. Rampant erosion stripped away as much as 40 tons of soil per acre in cleared areas.
The high construction costs, combined with the 1970s financial crisis, led to the abandonment of the original plan for a fully paved highway. Today, more than 50 years after its inauguration, large stretches of the BR-230 remain unpaved earth or gravel tracks. Less than 20% of the highway was paved as of 2022. The road became an example of failed infrastructure. Ecologically, the highway and the illegal spur roads that branch off it created a "fishbone" pattern of destruction. An estimated 95% of all deforestation in the Amazon occurs within 5.5 kilometers of a road. Improving just 2,234 km of the highway is predicted to cause the loss of 561,000 hectares of forest.
💡Fun Facts
The cost to settle a single family along the highway grew to US$65,000 in 1980 dollars.
The official name of the highway is BR-230.
The road crosses seven Brazilian states: Paraíba, Ceará, Piauí, Maranhão, Tocantins, Pará, and Amazonas.
The highway's construction and the influx of outsiders had devastating impacts on Indigenous communities, fragmenting traditional lands and introducing diseases.
Accessible 24/7, though travel is entirely dependent on weather conditions.
Admission
Free
Accessibility
Paved sections exist, but much of the western highway is unpaved clay and dirt. During the rainy season (November-April), these sections become impassable even for 4x4 vehicles. Travel is extremely difficult and not recommended for tourists.
