Better Mexican Highway Travel Becoming a Reality
By Tara A Spears Editor Nayarit Edition Sol Mexico News.
The talk amongst the travelers from Guadalajara is all about how wonderful the newly completed toll highways make coming to the coast. The access to the Guadalajara macrolibramiento, (the city’s outer ring road) officially opened (it has been open for past two months) for the semana santa holiday migration this week. “My family has come from Guadalajara to La Penita for vacations for forty years,” said Maria. “It was the shortest travel time in my life!”
If you have ever driven in urban Guadalajara, you know that the vehicle volume makes getting around the city slow and aggravating with stop and start movement. Being able to circumvent the clogged freeways and city streets is a major stress reliever; being able to live the city and connect directly to the federal toll highway is a driver’s dream come true!
The macrolibramiento Sur de Guadalajara (Southern Superbypass of Guadalajara), is designated and signed as Federal Highway GUA 10D. This toll road in Jalisco serves as a bypass around greater Guadalajara and currently links the Guadalajara–Tepic toll road (Mexican Federal Highway 15D) on the west with the Guadalajara–Lagos de Moreno toll road (Mexican Federal Highway 80D) to the east. This is fantastic for those RVers traveling north- they can now avoid the congestion through the city.
Even better news for those who love the coastal towns of Riviera Nayarit, according to Mexico Daily News, that another new stretch of highway in Nayarit between Las Varas and Compostela is 90% complete and will open in July. It is scheduled to begin construction on the final phase, the 90-kilometer Las Varas-Vallarta highway, after the Las Varas exit is functioning.
“The important thing is that we have organized ourselves trying to encourage from the beginning the participation of private capital,” said Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. “The federal department of highways and transportation established this project (the bypass toll road) to provide more employment, greater social benefit and greater regional economic benefit.” The transportation chief said the federal government has allocated more than 20 billion pesos to the state to undertake this long-awaited highway project.
“This route is extremely important for the tourist growth of the Riviera Nayarit, where in 2013 about 2 and a half million visitors were recorded.” The first 55 kilometers with four lanes became operational 2017 spring break holiday season from Jala to Compostela. But the 2nd phase that is vitally important for Jaltemba Bay visitors, is being accomplished due to the management with Portuguese investment called “Costa Capomo”. Without the expert project engineers-and their funding- who knows how many more years it would have taken to become an actuality.
From its inception, the mission for building the Nayarit Jala-Compostela-Vallarta highway was to “encourage increased tourism from Jalisco (to Nayarit) and to reduce the travel time from 3:30 to 1:45 hours, ” said general coordinator of the Secretary of Communications and Transportation, José Antonio Rodarte.
The state official indicated that this faster driving route will not only benefit the inhabitants of Guadalajara who want to spend the weekend along the beach but also those who come from Guanajuato, Aguascalientes, Zacatecas and San Luis Potosí, among others.
Excellent plan! As a person that loves to drive, the expansion of Mexican highway system to level out and create four lanes is more than a time saver, it’s a life saver.
