A spate of road works started last week in the Guadalajara metropolitan area quickly frayed the nerves of motorists.
Huge tailbacks have become the norm in the city center, where the intersection of Juarez and 16 de Septiembre – perhaps the busiest in the downtown core – is closed due to ongoing construction work on the third Tren Ligero (subway) line.
During the three-week closure, drivers coming from Javier Mina who need to pass t
hrough the city center are being diverted on to the Calzada Independencia (see photo). Rather than face this gridlock, they are being advised to take Calzada del Ejercito, Revolucion and La Paz as the most convenient way to reach main avenues such as Federalismo, Chapultepec, Union and Lopez Mateos.
Such diversions, however, may be of little use. On several occasions this week, traffic throughout the entire downtown zone came to a virtual standstill, with all alternative routes deadlocked.
Meanwhile, resurfacing work on a one-kilometer stretch of Avenida Lopez Mateos between Avenida Copernico and the Periferico is also causing long delays for motorists. Traffic will circulate on single lanes in both directions until the work is completed in one month’s time. To ease the flow, traffic officers stationed outside the city near Santa Anita are redirecting trailers via the Camino Real a Colima, which joins the Periferico at Avenida Colon.
Last weekend’s rainfall put the work slightly behind schedule but Zapopan Mayor Pablo Lemus has promised that the 80-million-peso public works project will be finished by the first week of December.
The timing of the resurfacing work has been questioned, given the ongoing project to construct a “nodo” (cloverleaf interchange) at Lopez Mateos and the Periferico.
The Jalisco Infrastructure and Public Works Department (SIOP) has said it will use helicopters to quickly identify specific traffic problems during the works and take immediate steps to remedy them.