two and half hour drive

In a joint effort by the municipal governments of Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta and the state government of Jalisco and at a cost of $300,000,000.00 pesos, the new highway linking the two cities is near completion. The highway has been in the planning stages for about 15 years and promises to decrease travel time, improve shipping routes and increase tourism to both cities.
The highway, constructed by Mexicon Construction Company, once completed, will decrease travel time between the two cities to approximately 2.5 hours rather then the current time of 5 to 6 hours via the existing route through the Sierra Madre mountains.
Juan Manuel Perez Valdez, a spokesperson for Mexicon Construction company has told us that they took a lesson from the builders of the English Channel tunnel in that two teams of workers are utilized. The first team is building from Guadalajara toward Puerto Vallarta, while the second team is building from Puerto Vallarta toward Guadalajara. Due to a slight miscalculation, the existing ends are off by 100 meters and in order to meet up will be 15 meters into the neighboring state of Michoacan. And herein lays the problem.
Michoacan authorities and residences are concerned for the environmental impact the stretch of highway will cause and are blocking construction through their state. Upon producing an EIS (Environmental Impact Study), paid for by Mexicon, Mr. Valdez has assured the government of Michoacan that no undue stress will be placed on the small but significant area that the last leg of the highway will consume. Unsatisfied by the study, residents of our neighboring state are protesting the construction and blocking the continuance of work.
“It’s very stressful working out there,” said Mr. Valdez. “People are strapping themselves to trees and many of our trucks and graders have been vandalized by the locals in an effort to stop construction. A number of our employees have walked off the job site due to bodily threats to their person.” Authorities for the government of Michoacan are doing little to curb the violence and are, as Mr. Valdez states, “turning a blind eye.”
In a heated meeting between all concerned parties, it was agreed that further studies are necessary in order to assure compliance with all environmental impact laws of Michoacan.
“Changing the route at this stage will add millions to the final cost of the highway and postpone its completion time by 3 years,” says Mr. Valdez, “so that is not an option, and we will endeavor to work with the concerned parties to solve this problem.”
At the time of this publication, additional studies have been ordered and are currently underway.