Mexico ponders change to US$380mn Oaxaca-Puerto Escondido highway

Mexico’s government is evaluating a change to a 15km stretch of the 8.2bn-peso (US$377mn) Barranca Larga-Ventanilla toll road between Oaxaca city and Puerto Escondido municipality. 

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Sunday that “an old agrarian conflict between Sola de Vega and San Vicente Coatlán” municipalities is stalling work on the remaining part of the 170km road.

“We made a good proposal to the [land owners],” he said on Twitter, adding that if the problem is not solved in a month, “we will make a new line, a bypass for other communities.”

Planning for the road started 10 years ago, but the government reactivated the project in 2019 by launching construction tenders. Separate contracts for two subsections were awarded to local firms Vise and Coconal.

In November, López Obrador said the road would be finished by August 2023. 

The highway will reduce travel time between the coastal localities from six to two hours. It involves 10 bridges, two viaducts, three tunnels, nine junctions and five emergency ramps.