This network of roads connects people and trade from one end of the Amazon to the other. Located in Brazil, the Trans-Amazonian highway is also known as BR 230. Builders have not yet developed many parts of the highway, leaving areas of dirt and mud that increase standing water and uncertain driving conditions, which have led some to call the network of roads the worst in Brazil.
Another important road connecting the Amazon is the Soy Highway. Also known as BR 163, this highway is 1,767 kilometers long and connects major Brazilian cities such as Cuiabá and Pará. Named because of its economic importance to Brazilian farmers and businesses (including many that sell soy), the Soy Highway is another roadway in the Amazon with vast infrastructural problems that make it challenging to traverse in some parts. Other parts, though, are fully developed and paved.
The building of these roads has allowed commerce and travel to improve in the Amazon but has also led to the destruction of vast amounts of rain forest. Beyond the parts that were destroyed for the actual destruction of the roads, these highways have also allowed deforestation to occur more widely as companies have better access to once-remote parts of the Amazon. Large numbers of cattle ranchers and soy farmers using the roads have also led to deforestation. It was estimated in a 2010 "National Geographic" article that roughly 200 football fields of Amazon rain forest is being destroyed every few minutes.
Some researchers also claim that the Amazon's roads have also damaged human health. Because they have a tendency to fill with puddles and increase standing water, there has been a documented increase in the prevalence of diseases like malaria along populated sections of highways. Since the roads also bring more people to these areas, even those just passing through have a greater risk of contracting diseases.
