With surveyors currently conducting fieldwork, construction of the “Macrolibramiento” highway to the south of Guadalajara is set to begin in March.
Also known as the “Libramiento del Sur,” the 111-kilometer highway will run from Zapotlanejo to El Arenal, bypassing Guadalajara in order to ease the transportation of cargo not destined for the city. It will benefit trucks coming from the busy port of Manzanillo, as well as relieving Lazaro Cardenas and the Periferico ring road of a number of heavy goods vehicles.
“We estimate that construction will be underway around early March,” said Heriberto Gonzalez Rodriguez, director of the Ministry of Communications and Transportation (SCT) in Jalisco. Before then, surveyors will continue preliminary work until the end of January.
The all-new four-lane highway will be laid with hydraulic paving, with work completed from east to west over the next two years. Half of the project is expected to be finished by the end of 2012. The construction phase will directly generate 500 jobs, as well as another 1,500 indirectly.Carlos Slim’s construction firm Ideal will be laying 70 percent of the highway, having agreed to invest 8.2 billion pesos in the project. Ideal released the first 4.3 billion pesos of funds on November 30, 2011.
Last year the SCT granted Ideal the contract for the Southern Pacific road package, which includes the construction and operation of the southern beltway, among other projects. Ideal will have the concession for 30 years, meaning the highway will be a toll road.
“The truth is that without an investment of this kind, nobody will put money in and we will not have the funds we need,” said Gonzalez. “We do not like to have toll booths, but it would be unfair for someone to come and invest their money, only for us to say no, now (the road) is free.”
The route begins at the Zapotlanejo junction on the free road from Guadalajara to Zapotlanejo. From there it runs 30 kilometers to the Chapala highway. The second stretch runs 35 kilometers to the Colima highway, which it crosses by Las Cuatas, near Santa Cruz de Las Flores. The final 46-kilometer stretch runs through to the El Arenal junction on the Tepic toll road, which Ideal will also be extending. So far 85 percent of land rights have been secured.