Peña Nieto Inaugurates Mazatlán-Durango Highway

by Murry Page on 17 Oct 13
mazmessenger.com

The 227.3 kilometer (136 mile) highway cost a total of 28.6 billion pesos ($2.28 billion).

Today México’s most ambitious highway project, the Mazatlán-Durango highway, will officially open when President Enrique Peña Nieto, Mario López Valdez, the governor of Sinaloa, and Jorge Herrera Caldera, the governor of Durango, inaugurate the Mazatlán-Durango superhighway. The ceremony will take place at a point midway between Mazatlán and Durango about 130 kilometers (78 miles) from Mazatlán.

The 227.3 kilometer (136 mile) highway cost a total of 28.6 billion pesos ($2.28 billion). 15.114 billion pesos ($1.209 billion) were spent on the Sinaloa side of the highway and 13.486 billion pesos ($1.079) were spent on the Durango side.

The Mazatlan-Durango highway will have a positive financial impact not only on the states of Sinaloa and Durango, but also the states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Zacatecas, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, which, together with Sinaloa and Durango, comprise what is now referred to as the Northern Economic Corridor.

With the opening of the superhighway Mazatlán will become the gateway for products moving from Asia to the east coast of the United States. The drive from Mazatlán to San Antonio, Texas will now be reduced to six hours.

The Mazatlán-Durango highway has 61 tunnels with a total length of 19.4 km (11.6 mi.) and 115 bridges, having a total length of 12.5 kilometers (7.5 miles), one of which is the Baluarte Bridge, one of the highest cable-stayed bridges and longest in the world, with 124 meters (406.8 feet) length and 390 meters (1,280 feet) high, and the second longest tunnel in the country.

(from El Sol de Mazatlán)