Bogotá to Girardot and Melgar: the road, the tolls and the weekend

Girardot is the nearest real heat to Bogotá, and Melgar is the town half the capital stops in on the way. The road that connects them to the city has been rebuilt over the past decade and is now one of the best highways in Colombia. What still decides how your day goes is not the asphalt. It is what time you leave.

Written by the team that runs this route. Every figure below is attributed, and where the only available source is press, not an authority, we say so on the line.

One road, and one alternative

There is essentially one highway from Bogotá to Girardot. You leave the south of the city on the Autopista Sur through Soacha, climb past Sibaté, cross the Sumapaz range, drop through Silvania and Fusagasugá, pass Melgar in Tolima, and come back into Cundinamarca at Ricaurte just before Girardot. Vía Sumapaz, the concession that runs the corridor, lists those municipalities as the ones the road serves.

That corridor is not the road it was ten years ago. The Ministry of Transport signed the start order for the Tercer Carril Bogotá – Girardot project on 1 December 2016 in Soacha, as a privately initiated public-private partnership awarded to the Consorcio Estructura Plural Vías a Girardot, made up in equal halves by the Colombian builder Conconcreto and the French group VINCI. The ministry described the scope at the time as 72,2 kilometres of new six-lane highway plus the maintenance and rehabilitation of 144,8 kilometres of existing road, with four short tunnels, three bridges, roundabouts, a cycle path and five road intersections.

Those works are done. In May 2026 the concession reported, in comments picked up by the financial daily Portafolio, that construction finished in April 2025, that more than 130 kilometres of the corridor now run with a third lane, that more than 280 kilometres of lanes had been rehabilitated and 120 critical slope sites stabilised, and that the project had moved into a twenty-five year operating phase. The same report put traffic on the corridor at more than 18 million users a year. Those figures come from the operator through the press, not from a government bulletin, so we flag them as such.

There is a second way to reach Girardot, and Bogotanos use it constantly: out through Mosquera and down the western flank through La Mesa, Anapoima, Apulo and Tocaima. It is slower and narrower, but it exists, and on long weekends the authorities actively push traffic onto it. The Bogotá district government publishes the measures for that corridor by kilometre marker before every public holiday.

What the tolls cost

There are two toll plazas between Bogotá and Girardot, Chusacá and Chinauta, and they charge the same rates. Vía Sumapaz adjusted them at 00:00 on 16 January 2026 in line with the 2025 consumer price index, which the concession put at 5,1 per cent.

A private car therefore pays $32.200 COP in tolls in each direction, or $64.400 for a return trip. Both plazas have two lanes reserved for electronic payment, and the concession lists Copiloto, FacilPass, Flypass, GoPass, OpenPass, Tolis and Viarapida as accepted tags.

Residents of the municipalities along the corridor can qualify for differential rates, a scheme the concession attributes to Resoluciones 2500 de 2015 and 1597 de 2016. That is not something a visitor can use, but it explains why the car next to you may be paying something different.

How long it takes

The plain answer is that this route has two times, not one.

The optimistic one is about two hours. Portafolio reported in June 2025 that the modernisation had cut the journey de siete a dos horas at its best, and that during Semana Santa that year the corridor recorded an estimated running time of two hours while more than 650.000 vehicles used it between 11 and 20 April. Again, that is the operator's measurement reported in the press.

The other time is what happens when everyone travels at once. Two hours describes the highway in free flow, measured on the corridor itself. It does not include getting from wherever you are in Bogotá to the Autopista Sur, which on a Friday afternoon can be the longest part of the day. It does not include the queues that build behind the toll plazas on holiday weekends, and it does not include the return.

If you have a choice, the useful rule is simple: travel against the flow. Leaving Bogotá early on a Saturday morning, or coming back on a Tuesday, is a different road from leaving on Friday at six and returning on Monday at four.

The weekend, and how it is managed

Because the Bogotá – Girardot corridor is the capital's main weekend escape, the authorities run a formal plan for it. For the public holiday of 16 and 17 August 2026, for example, the Bogotá district government published this set of measures:

The exact hours change from one holiday to the next, so the table above is an illustration of the shape of the plan, not a permanent schedule. What does not change is the pattern: on the Monday of a long weekend the road is run as a one-way system towards Bogotá for much of the afternoon and evening, and heavy vehicles are kept off it.

Two practical consequences. First, if you are travelling towards Girardot on a holiday Monday afternoon you will be squeezed into fewer lanes than usual. Second, if you are travelling towards Bogotá that same afternoon, leaving at two instead of five can save you hours.

Melgar or Girardot

People from outside Colombia often treat these as one destination. They are not.

Melgar sits in Tolima, on the corridor, before Girardot. It is a town of hotels and swimming pools, which is why Colombian travel press habitually calls it the ciudad de las piscinas; that nickname is press usage, not an official designation. It is the shorter trip, and it is what most Bogotá families mean when they say they are going to tierra caliente for two nights. Melgar is also next to the Tolemaida military base, which is worth knowing only because it explains the traffic and the checkpoints you may see on the approach.

Girardot is further on, in Cundinamarca, on the bank of the Magdalena. It is a river city and not a resort strip: a port that grew on coffee and rail, with a working centre, a riverfront and a history you can see. If you want pools and nothing else, Melgar is closer. If you want a place with a centre to walk around in, keep going to Girardot.

Both are on the same road, so a driver can do one, the other, or both on the same day. The practical difference for a transfer is the last stretch: Melgar hotels are mostly strung along the highway and the roads off it, while Girardot addresses are inside a city grid.

What there is to see in Girardot

Girardot's landmarks are unusually well documented, because two of them are protected at national level.

The railway bridge over the Magdalena is part of the Corredor Férreo Facatativá – Girardot, declared a Bien de Interés Cultural of national character by Resolución 800 de 1998 of the Ministry of Culture. The declaration runs, in the ministry's own wording, from the Facatativá railway station to the bridge over the Magdalena river in Girardot, inclusive. The resolution describes a corridor of 132 kilometres built between 1882 and 1909, crossing nine municipalities and taking in twenty-five stations.

The Plaza de Mercado, between carreras 9 and 10 and calles 10 and 11, was declared a national monument by Decreto 1932 de 1993 and now has a Plan Especial de Manejo y Protección approved by Resolución 1743 de 2020. The ministry's file attributes the design to the German architect Leopoldo Rother and treats the building as the point at which modern architecture arrived in the city, after a century in which Girardot had grown along historicist lines.

Beyond those two, the draw is the river itself and the heat. Girardot is a city people come to in order to be outdoors, eat fish and get in the water, and it fills up on exactly the weekends when the road is worst.

Arriving in the heat

The single thing visitors underestimate on this route is the climate change between the two ends. You leave a cold, high plateau and arrive, two or three hours later, in the Magdalena valley, where the middle of the afternoon is hot. People step out of the car in the clothes they left Bogotá in and regret it within minutes.

Practical version: carry water in the car, not just for the drive; bring something to change into; and if you are travelling with children or older passengers, plan the arrival for the morning or the late afternoon instead of one o'clock. A vehicle with working air conditioning is not a luxury on this road, it is the difference between a pleasant trip and an unpleasant one, and it is worth confirming before you book anything.

If something goes wrong

The corridor is operated, not just paved. Vía Sumapaz runs a 24-hour operational control centre and provides, free of charge, medicalised ambulances, flatbed and boom tow trucks, a mobile workshop stationed along the route, a rescue team and continuous road inspection patrols.

The concession's emergency lines are 310 422 46 87, 311 787 23 39 and 018000 180305, all free and available at any hour. Its user-service line, for questions, not emergencies, is staffed Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The operator also asks drivers to follow the P.A.S. protocol if they stop after an incident: proteger, signal the emergency; avisar, call the lines; socorrer, help only if you know how. In August 2026 the concession headlined a holiday-weekend release with the claim that 84 per cent of the emergencies it attends on the Bogotá – Girardot road are preventable. Over a longer horizon it reports the corridor's accident index down 75 per cent between 2016 and 2026.

Common questions

How long does the drive from Bogotá to Girardot take?

About two hours on an open road, which is the figure the concession has reported through the Colombian press since the works finished. Allow considerably more on a Friday evening, on the Sunday or Monday of a long weekend, and during Semana Santa, and remember that getting out of Bogotá is part of the journey.

How many tolls are there and what do they cost?

Two, Chusacá and Chinauta. A car pays $16.100 COP at each, so $32.200 in each direction, at the rates in force since 16 January 2026.

Are the roadworks finished?

Yes. The concession reported in May 2026 that construction was completed in April 2025 and the corridor had entered its operating phase, with more than 130 kilometres of the corridor now running with a third lane.

When is the worst time to travel?

Friday late afternoon leaving Bogotá, and the afternoon and evening of the last day of a long weekend coming back. Those are precisely the windows in which the authorities put reversible lanes in place.

Is there another way to get there?

Yes, via Mosquera, La Mesa, Anapoima, Apulo and Tocaima. It is slower in normal conditions but it is the corridor the authorities open up as a reversible on holiday returns, and it is the fallback whenever the main road is blocked.

Is Melgar on the way?

Yes. Melgar, in Tolima, is on the same corridor and comes before Girardot. A driver can stop in one and continue to the other on the same trip.

Do I need cash at the tolls?

Not necessarily. Both plazas have two lanes reserved for electronic payment and accept Copiloto, FacilPass, Flypass, GoPass, OpenPass, Tolis and Viarapida.

What happens if the car breaks down on the corridor?

Call the concession's emergency lines. Tow trucks, a mobile workshop, ambulances and a rescue team cover the road twenty-four hours a day and the service is free to users.