The first 30 kilometers of the 111-kilometer Macrolibramiento ring road to the south of Guadalajara will open to traffic by the end of June, Bernardo Gutierrez, the delegate for the Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes (SCT) in Jalisco, promised last week.
The stretch running from the Zapotlanejo highway to the Guadalajara-Chapala highway is almost complete, Gutierrez said.
However, as drivers plying the “Carretera a Chapala” can see for themselves, much work still remains to be done at the Macrolibramiento junction located one kilometer south of the Highway 35 (Atequiza/Ocotlan/La Barca) turnoff.
First mooted ten years ago, the Macrolibramiento will bypass the Guadalajara metropolitan area – approximately 20 kilometers south of the city beltway (Periferico) – from Zapotlanejo in the east to El Arenal on the Nogales highway, crossing both the Chapala and Colima highways on its route.
Work on the road began in January 2013 and was scheduled to finish within four years. Issues of compensation to local communal farm owners (ejidos) for land expropriations and legal injunctions caused a slew of delays.
Gutierrez stressed that most of the legal obstacles have been resolved and any that remain should be settled soon.
The major aim of the Macrolibramiento is to ease the transportation of cargo through the suburbs of Guadalajara, in particular trucks coming from the busy port of Manzanillo. It will also relieve Avenida Lazaro Cardenas and the Periferico of many heavy goods vehicles.
Communications magnate Carlos Slim’s construction firm Ideal is laying 70 percent of the highway and will operate the concession for 30 years. When complete, motorists can expect to be charged a toll for using the highway.
To accommodate species that may be affected by the road, the original plan included 58 elevated wildlife crossings to be built along the Macrolibramiento. However, an investigation by Milenio newspaper in February 2015 revealed that not a single one had been built, nor did there seem to be much interest on the part of the constructors to honor its commitment.
In addition, a massive reforestation of the zone is planned, with a minimum of 250,000 trees expected to be planted – three times the amount that will be felled to build the highway.
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.
The SCT has not given a time frame for the completion of the remaining 81 kilometers.