The stop-start saga of Guadalajara’s outer city beltway, the Macrolibramiento, has finally ended.
Mexican Transportation and Communications (SCT) Secretary Gerardo Ruiz Esparza this week opened the final stretches of the four-lane toll road that cuts a semicircular arc to the south of the metropolitan area. The 111-kilometer road is designed to
redirect heavy traffic away from the metropolitan area and Periferico (city beltway) and help “detonate” economic development in provincial areas of Jalisco. Ruiz noted that four million people will benefit from the federally-funded public work, which cost more than eight billion pesos ($US415 million) to construct.
The autopista links the Mexico City and Tepic/Nogales toll roads, crossing the Guadalajara-Chapala, Guadalajara-Colima and Guadalajara-Ameca highways in its path. The road features seven “entronques” (intersections) along its route.
The newly opened stretches of the Macrolibramiento will shorten the distances (and stress) for those driving from the Lake Chapala area to the Jalisco and Nayarit coastlines, as well as northwestern destinations of the country, such as Mazatlan, Los Mochis, Mexicali, Tijuana and southern California.
Travelers from the Chapala area can join the toll road on the Guadalajara-Chapala highway a kilometer after the turnoff to Azequita and La Barca.
The cost of using the 111-kilometer highway has raised a few eyebrows.
To traverse its entire length, paying tolls at three booths, will cost motorists 282 pesos. Trailer-truck drivers will pay 504 pesos.
Guadalajara Mayor Enrique Alfaro said the tariff was too high and will discourage people from using the road.
Another criticism leveled at the highway is that it has been opened hastily, before any signage has been erected. Neither are there gas stations, rest stops, toilets or emergency telephones on any part of its trajectory.
The first stage of the project opened in August 2016, eight years after the bidding process for the road’s construction began.
Many delays were caused by legal injunctions filed by communal agrarian groups (ejidos) seeking more just compensation for the appropriation of their land.
Environmental groups were also concerned that the highway passed within one kilometer of the Primavera Forest, a federally protected nature reserve referred to as Guadalajara’s “lung.” Although the SCT gave guarantees that bridges or tunnels would be constructed to allow wildlife to pass across the highway, it is unclear whether all their promises have been fulfilled to the letter.
The SCT also agreed to plant 220,000 new trees to compensate for any uprooted in the construction of the road.
The SCT estimates that the average traffic load on the highway will be 5,840 vehicles each day.