Highway Department Untimely on Acapulco Projects

(Acapulco, AN 22 December) City government officials expressed their consternation at the inability of the Federal Highway Department to complete public roads projects when promised. They were to be ready for receiving the hundreds of thousands of year-end tourists, but they remain incomplete, complicating entry into Acapulco. Mayor Ávila Sánchez said that he would personally go to Mexico City to protest the chronic delays. Staffers from the Federal Senate are expected to arrive today in Acapulco to make an inspection tour of progress. Three important projects, slated to be ready by December 21 have not been finished: the widening of the Mozimba-Pie de la Cuesta highway, leading out of the City along the Costa Grande, re-paving of the road between El Cayaco and Las Cruces, due November 30 and still incomplete, and the intersection of the Escénica with the route to El Cayaco, at Puerto Marqués. The latter seems to be weeks away from completion even though the due date was yesterday. Traffic tie-ups are especially frustrating at that location, as it is a strategic point of the road connecting Acapulco proper with the Diamond Zone.

“Because we do not have a written contract [with the highway department], we cannot sue them, so we will just have to make public protests at their central offices in Mexico City. First we will make a survey of the job sites to be able to provide accurate information about their status,” he said. Mayor Ávila Sánchez reiterated that the projects be completed “immediately” because “we Acapulqueños cannot be left to suffer the consequences.”