Nuño Lara began the expansion of the Armería-Manzanillo highway, in Colima

Statement from the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT)

This is an automated translation of the original press release issued in Spanish

• The head of the SICT was accompanied by the governor of Colima, Indira Vizcaíno Silva; the work includes a bypass and a bridge • With an investment of 4 thousand 400 million pesos, the works will allow greater fluidity and safety, as well as feasibility in its potential expansion

In his first work tour as Secretary of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT), Jorge Nuño Lara began the expansion from 4 to 6 lanes and modernization of the Armería-Manzanillo highway, which includes the Manzanillo Bypass and the Tepalcates bridge II; He also visited the Guadalajara-Colima highway managed by Banobras.

The works in the Armería-Manzanillo, he explained, will allow greater fluidity and safety for heavy traffic, and the viability of a potential expansion towards the port in the coming years.

In the company of the governor of Colima, Indira Vizcaíno Silva, the head of the SICT said that the work will require an investment of just over 4,400 million pesos, which will allow better circulation and development conditions for the state.

When dimensioning the importance of this highway, he added that 19,000 vehicles circulate daily, of which 40 percent are heavy. "It is a highway dedicated to the transport of heavy cargo that comes or goes to the port, with a lot of industrial use."

Additionally, he emphasized, the Transvolcanic Axis that goes from Guadalajara to Colima was completed, which was expanded to four lanes and allows connection between the port of Manzanillo, Colima and Guadalajara. "With that we would already generate a good axis of four to six lanes, giving a better speed to the circulation."

Likewise, he highlighted that an investment of 2 thousand 200 million pesos is being carried out in different works to connect the port of Manzanillo with the highway. He emphasized that there is a contract with the concessionaires for more than 30 years, which allows for a joint solution for the development of the highway.

This will bring benefits to tourist, industrial, and port activities, as well as to concessionaires and users who use these roads.

At the event, the governor of Colima, Indira Vizcaíno Silva, commented that the expansion from four to six lanes of the Armería-Manzanillo highway will allow safe transit. The payment of tolls by the cargo motor transport and free access to the motorist guarantees maintenance and safety in transit.

He announced that construction work is expected to begin on the Tepalcates II bridge in the first quarter of 2023 for its expansion to four lanes, important for tourism and port development.

Regarding the Transvolcanic Axis, Vizcaíno Silva affirmed that the project had been stopped for 10 years. But it has been the sensitivity of the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the SICT in charge of its head Jorge Nuño Lara, that these road projects are carried out.

Later, Nuño Lara visited the Guadalajara-Colima highway. He explained that like other highways that had not been completed for years, such as Barranca Larga-Ventanilla -about to be completed-, Mitla-Tehuantepec, La Pera-Cuautla, the Government of Mexico undertook the task of finishing them.

“We apply. We saw the problem and we solved it with the support of the President of the Republic, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. This highway will link an important point, which is the city of Guadalajara with Colima and the port of Manzanillo, and the reduction in time is just over half an hour, and it also increases security."

In turn, the deputy trustee general director of the Banco Nacional de Obras y Servicios Públicos (Banobras), Enrique Gutiérrez Flores, said that the Guadalajara-Colima highway has been concessioned to this organization since 1987. Since its inception, an investment of 3 thousand 800 million pesos.

"As of May of this year, the bank resumed the completion of a body, in the La Montaña section, 17 kilometers long, 14 bridges, seven special structures in the Guadalajara-Colima direction, with an approximate investment of 220 million pesos. which concluded satisfactorily on November 4 of this year.”

This generated 600 direct jobs and 1,200 indirect jobs and allows a reduction in transit time from two hours to an hour and a half, which favors user service and safety, having separated the bodies with two lanes in each direction.

"To finish these works, the involvement of the SICT was very important," as well as the governments of Colima and Jalisco. He ratified Banobras' commitment to continue investing in highway infrastructure.

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