CubaPLUS Magazine

Pedraplén Caibarién-Santa María is the picturesque name given by Cubans to the viaduct made of stones and other materials that advances in the middle of the sea to link the northern fishing city of Villa Clara with the tourist key named Santa María, belonging to the King Gardens emporium. Sun and beach of high carats.

Sometimes people say only Caibarién Causeway or Santa María Causeway and everyone accepts it, for the sake of synthesis. The most important thing is that the road, a pride not only of the local population, but all of the nation, links the big island with the beautiful beach of Santa María, and also with the so-called Ensenachos and Las Brujas, also paradisiacal. Due to its 48 km length, the road is the longest of its kind on the planet, and has been awarded, among other recognitions, the Puente de Alcántara international prize for the "Best Ibero-American Civil Works", for its size and structure, technology and engineering in the middle of an area of great ecological potential and its integration into the natural landscape.

Added to the advantages of its peremptory functionality is the admiration and enjoyment that it arouses in those who visit it and see it as another of the charms of the tourist pole.

It is worth remembering that the locals and especially the natives of Caibarién have been dreaming of this possibility of connecting to the keys and beaches practically since the 19th century. Such aspiration was motivated by economic reasons, to make viable the shipments of sugar that they exported.

Around 1916, they also aspired to build a railway from Caibarién to Cayo Francés. Something that also soon vanished. In the thirties of the 20th century, the coastal key known as Punta Brava was linked by a 600 m road with the city of Caibarién. Said road would make it possible to lay out the so-called Military Beach, with a public but discriminatory nature.

In the 70s the idea of the causeway reappeared, but the work began to be executed in the late 80s. The initial plan contemplated a much shorter viaduct, only 11 km long, linking Caibarién to Cayo Fragoso, with very good beaches and longer than Santa María. But building this viaduct implied overcoming obstacles that would not guarantee the quality of the project that was planned to be carried out in the area.

 Decision of the leader Fidel Castro, the link with Santa María was decided, further away, but also with extraordinary beaches. The tie of the causeway occurred on December 15, 1994 in the place where the monument to the Puente de Alcántara Prize is located today.

The keys to the northeast of Villa Clara form an amazing marine environment and the level of conservation of its biota is extraordinary. Jardines del Rey belongs to the great Sabana-Camagüey archipelago, one of the four largest groups in the nation. That sea on the north coast, which at first seemed like an unsurmountable obstacle, was “decoded”, not defeated, by the skill and tenacity of the men from the Campaña de Las Villas contingent, who built the project.

There were also laudable samples of the wisdom of specialists, engineers and designers, who stood out with great self-sacrifice and dedication in endless days at the table and at the foot of the work. It also links to the Majá and Santa María keys. And the largest bridge over the sea in Cuba is located on this road, known as the Canal of the Bridge Boats.