Traffic on the highway from Guadalajara to Colima came to a halt some five kilometers east of the first bridge in the barrancas section of the road last weekend.
Maintenance on bridges further west from kilometers 103 to 122 kept traffic at a standstill and a normally three-hour trip to Manzanillo became a five-hour slog.
But work on the bridges will cease during the two-week Easter-Holy Week vacation period, according to Marisol Neri Leon, Colima Secretary of Infrastructure, Urban Development and Mobility. “We have been told by the SCT that they will suspend their labors as of Friday, April 8—at least that work which is congesting traffic,” she said.
The construction of an additional 16.5 kilometers of two-lane highway to the north of the current autopista is now about 97-percent finished and the federal Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport (SCT) expects to open the new section later this year, making the entire road a four-lane highway. This is a totally-privately funded venture, so expect tolls to increase once the new section is open.