On August 23, the municipalization agreement for the Mexico-Querétaro highway expired, so surveillance of the section of road from the Prosecutor’s Office to Paseo 5 de Febrero was now under the responsibility of the National Guard (GN).
During a visit conducted by Diario de Querétaro along this section, it was observed that there were no personnel from the GN or the Querétaro Municipal Public Safety Secretariat’s traffic patrol at any of the points, which leads to excessive speeds in the area.
During the administration of former Mayor Luis Bernardo Nava Guerrero, an agreement was signed with the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications, and Transportation (SICT) to municipalize a section of the highway, which included an annual investment of 10 million pesos for road maintenance.
This agreement also obligated the municipality to monitor the lanes, where traffic officers were stationed. This led to an assessment of a reduction in speeding in the area and a decrease in the number of accidents on that stretch of road, as well as the issuance of fines for administrative offenses.
In addition, the construction of a braking ramp was proposed on Highway 57, at the beginning of the municipalized section toward Querétaro. This project was submitted to the SICT (Mexico City Transit Commission) in 2023; however, the federal agency did not approve the construction.
In January of this year, Mayor Felipe Macías Olvera announced that the Querétaro municipal administration had renewed the agreement with the SICT (Mexico City Transit Commission) to maintain the Mexico-Querétaro Highway. He confirmed that 10 million pesos annually would be allocated for this project, emphasizing that the agreement signed by the previous administration was beneficial. In July, it was even announced that 2 million of the 10 million pesos had been invested in patching work on the municipalized section.
However, according to information from the municipality, the municipalization agreement was signed between the SICT and the Mobility Secretariat for infrastructure and mobility issues.
Although the mayor assured in August of this year that traffic patrol officers from the Querétaro Municipal Public Security Secretariat (SSPMQ) maintain a permanent presence on the municipalized section, the municipality shared that the SSPMQ did not sign the agreement, so road safety in the center lanes of Highway 57 was left to the National Guard, in addition to the fact that the agreement expired on August 23 of this year.
It was during this administration that an administrative restructuring was carried out, leaving the Mobility Secretariat without traffic patrol officers, as they were integrated into the new traffic patrol.
Just last September 3, a pileup involving 10 vehicles occurred when a torton-type truck suffered brake failure, leaving 10 people injured and one person dead.
Source: oem
