At a press conference held by President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, the Secretary of Infrastructure, Communications, and Transportation, José Antonio Esteva Medina, announced the progress of the Mitla-Tehuantepec highway, one of the major projects that Oaxaca has in collaboration with the Mexican government, which will be inaugurated in January 2025.
The federal official highlighted that the superhighway to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec is a very complex project that made significant progress during the administration of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
He detailed that it is a highway consisting of 65 bridges, 14 viaducts, 10 tunnels, 20 interchanges, and 2 toll booths.
“The progress is at 95 percent, the length is 170 kilometers, and the completion date is set for January 2025. We are especially working on a tunnel called ‘El Tornillo’ in an area with significant landslides.”
He mentioned that he has personally been monitoring the contingencies that arise during the construction process every week, and it is progressing well.
“So, we hope to have it completed soon; we visited it during the transition period with President Claudia Sheinbaum and President López Obrador. One of the last tours was to this project, and it is still ongoing.”
He emphasized that the superhighway to the Isthmus is a very important and complex project, with large-scale structures, including some very large bridges, and the tunnel known as ‘El Tornillo.’
It is worth noting that once inaugurated and operational, the travel time from Oaxaca to the Isthmus is expected to be reduced from 4.5 hours to just 2.5 hours.
However, in August of this year, a landslide and the subsequent construction of a false tunnel delayed the construction work by several months.
The landslide occurred at kilometer 139, where the construction company workers made a cut, but it could not be stabilized geologically. This cut was made to form a slope so that the highway could be built on it, but stability was not achieved due to constant landslides.
This led to an unplanned and unbudgeted project, as the problem was resolved with what is technically known as a false tunnel, where the earth falls on top and forms a real tunnel.
Source: NVI Noticias
