The trip from Mazatlán to Durango just got faster, and higher. Committed to improving Mexico’s highway infrastructure, President Felipe Calderon on January 5. At 403 meters above the basin below, only the Si Du River Bridge in China is taller. The new bridge, a slim beacon of modern engineering, clasps onto a bent chasm over the Baluarte River like braces over a gap-toothed grin.
The entire Eiffel tower would fit easily in the clear maw of sky beneath the four lane span. From the deck it would take an object over nine seconds to plunge into the river below—enough time to sing the introduction to The Beatles’ “Help!”
The Baluarte River at the crossing forms the border between Sinaloa and Durango states. The Mexican engineering feat drawn out over it is part of the new 230-kilometer Carretera Mazatlán/Durango. Calderon specially praised Mexican engineers Federico Martinez and Victor Ortiz for overseeing the project.
When it opens later this year, the new highway, full of tunnels and other shortcuts, should reduce travel time between the two cities from six to 4.5 hours.
That’s what 20 billion pesos can buy over such irregular topography, a saving of 2.5 hours per car (four hours for each shipping truck or bus). The bridge alone made up over 2 billion of that total.
Calderon has made increased highway expenditures a goal of his administration. He has brought highway industry investment from 3.4 percent of GDP up to five percent in his term. This outlay has added 22,000 kilometers of highway to the country, bringing the total to 366,000 kilometers, according to a September announcement from the undersecretary of infrastructure, Fausto Barajas, in Mexico City.
The total cost of all this investment? According to Barajas, 57 billion pesos from the government last year, with an additional estimated 15 to 20 billion from the private sector.
It’s hard to measure the exact benefit of that investment, but commuters will save valuable time with each of the thousands of trips per day over these new roads—including commercial shipping and other business travelers. They will also save money on gas, moving at more efficient speeds over straighter roadways.
The focus here for Mexico is on financing its own future economic potential, whatever the incidental bridge record set along the way.
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