Residents of downtown Zapopan – as well as visitors to its historic center – heaved a collective sigh of relief this week as the new traffic tunnel at the convergence of Avenidas Americas/Avila Camacho/Laureles finally opened.

Jalisco Governor Aristoteles Sandoval reckons the corruption scandals that have tainted the image of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) of late will not influence  voters in the July 1 elections in this state.

The Pedro Kumamoto bandwagon marches on relentlessly.

A review of last year’s employment statistics resulted in Jalisco being crowned Mexico’s top job creation engine for 2017, logging 93,631 new jobs to knock the State of Mexico down a peg to number two and Mexico City to number three. 

The 31-kilometer second stage of the Via Corta (Short Route) linking Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta won’t be ready in April, as previously announced.

The federal Communications and Transportation Ministry (SCT) has slapped an August finish date on the four-lane stretch between Compostela and the Nayarit beach town of Las Varas.

Last month, SCT Director Gerardo Ruiz Esparza announced that the next, much-anticipated stage of the toll road would be completed in time for the busy Easter period.  The existing stretch of federal highway is characterized by repeated, dangerous curves that  slow traffic.

According to Salvador Fernández Ayala, the SCT delegate in Jalisco, engineering and environmental issues are the reasons for the new delay.

The first stage of the highway, from Jala to Compostela, opened last year. Work on the final stage, from Las Varas to Vallarta, could begin in April if all the related permits are obtained, the SCT said.

Meanwhile, Fernández Ayala said a priority for 2018 will be the completion of the last stretch of the Guadalajara-Colima autopista.  The 16.5-kilomter leg from Cuatro Caminos to Tuxpan is the only part of the highway lacking four lanes.  Fernández Ayala hopes the work can be finished by July or August.

Nine agricultural laborers died last week when the vehicle transporting them to an accommodation shelter plunged into a reservoir on the highway between Autlan and El Grullo.