Traffic chaos afflicted Guadalajara this week after a section of Lopez Mateos, one of the metro area’s busiest avenues, was closed while city officials carried out repairs to a damaged storm drain/sewer channel (colector).
Heavy rain and flooding on Saturday, September 15 caused extensive damage to the pipe running beneath the Manuel Acuña-Avenida Mexico tunnel.
The tunnel was closed all week in both directions, causing heavy traffic congestion around the nearby Minerva Glorieta.
Staff from Guadalajara’s Intermunicipal Water Authority (SIAPA) have been forced to uncover much of the road surface in the tunnel to fix the damaged pipeline.
The lanes either side of the tunnel (laterales) have remained open, albeit often saturated with traffic, but the tunnel is not expected to reopen until Saturday at the earliest.
SIAPA Superintendent Alejandro Gutierrez Moreno called this week for a full renovation of the city’s drainage network. Some 1,700 kilometers of piping need replacing, parts of which are up to 65 years old, he said.
A SIAPA analysis revealed this would cost up to 8.6 billion pesos, but Arturo Gleason, a hydraulics expert, consultant and researcher at the University of Guadalajara, warned that 50 percent of Guadalajara’s storm drains/sewers remain at risk of collapse if nothing is done.
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