Project Spotlight: Mexico’s US$333mn Oaxaca bypass

Mexico plans to build a 6.2bn-peso (US$333mn), 68km bypass in Oaxaca state to link the region’s main transportation roads with one of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s (AMLO) seven priority infrastructure projects, the Tehuantepec isthmus trade corridor.

Although the bypass was requested by local authorities a decade ago to improve mobility in the southern region, the AMLO administration scheduled construction for the next two years to open a new access to the 215km railway that will boost freight trade between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. 

According to the communications and transportation ministry's (SCT) project investment portfolio, the private sector will finance 46% and national infrastructure fund Fonadin 53%. Some 600mn pesos will be earmarked by state authorities to begin the pre-investment studies.

A cost-benefit analysis, an expert opinion, and an environmental impact study were all completed 10 years ago.

DETAILS

During the first quarter of 2020, the government will carry out the missing studies, acquire the rights-of-way and begin the first stage of the bypass, daily El Sol de México reported. 

The first stage entails over 42km and the second 25km.

Works include three radials, five junctions and 12 bridges in Oaxaca's main tourist destinations.

The “U” shaped bypass will also surround Oaxaca airport, which is currently being expanded, and it will cross the municipalities of Puerto Escondido, Brisas de Zicatela, Agua Blanca, Mazunte, Puerto Ángel, Pochutla and Huatulco, among others. It will also provide access to Salina Cruz port, where the interoceanic corridor will begin.

According to the early studies, the southern bypass will accommodate over 430,000 vehicles a day.

Originally, the bypass was promoted by the state’s highway authority and the executive project was awarded to Zambrano y Asociados, but works never took off. 

It was planned as a 56km two-lane road.

TEHUANTEPEC ISTHMUS

The bypass is also part of a federal plan to accelerate development in the Tehuantepec isthmus, Mexico’s narrowest stretch between both oceans and a possible rival to the Panama Canal. 

While the interoceanic corridor will increase freight transportation in the region up to 11.6 times when completed, the Oaxaca bypass will ease transportation between the state's 15 municipalities and the industrial parks planned in Oaxaca's urban area.

The bypass will also connect with the Mitla-Tehuantepec highway, a 169km road linking the central valley of Oaxaca to the Pacific coast. Works were awarded to Empresas ICA and CICSA, the construction subsidiary of local conglomerate Grupo Carso. Business mogul Carlos Slim and AMLO promised last year to finish the highway in less than 40 months.

It is still unclear when the tender will be launched, but given the interoceanic corridor and the Mitla-Tehuantepec highway are expected to be completed in the next two years, the bypass could move forward faster than expected. 

(Photo: Gobierno de México)