Highway to Oaxaca Now Open
The 104 km toll road connects highway 200 at Ventanilla, Colotepec to highway 175 at Barranca Larga, Ejutla, cutting the travel time from Puerto Escondido to Oaxaca to under three hours. Construction began in 2007, but there were years in which no work was done at all, as the first contractor went bankrupt with the international financial crisis, and the second also faced insolvency for reasons unrelated to the highway. Now the project is in the hands of Banobras, the federal infrastructure development bank, which contracted out the construction to various builders. Throughout the years the project suffered many delays because of conflicts between the communities along the route.
It’s almost anticlimactic. After all these years, all these promises, the super highway to Oaxaca is finally finished. People will travel on it without a second thought, not knowing and caring not about its difficult history. (See the last 39 issues of Vivapuerto.com).
It officially opened on February 4. When we went on February 6, our main concern was being able to stop to take photos. Previously our concern was being stopped by the police. No problem taking photos, but our timing was bad. There was a conflict between the minibus company Coatlanes and other transportation services, which was quickly resolved. But the day we went there were no buses or vans on the route. Now vans and buses from all along the Coast including Huatulco, Pochutla, Puerto Escondido and Pinotepa Nacional have free access to the highway. Literally free, as tolls will not be collected until next year. No date has been set.
The speed limit for much of the highway is 110 km per hour. So it shouldn’t take much more than an hour to transverse the 104 kms. Travel time from the center of Puerto to Ventanilla is around 15 or 20 minutes. Add another 20 minutes or so from Barranca Larga to Oaxaca City, and depending on the traffic it’s an easy 2 or 3 hour trip to Oaxaca. ADO, the first class bus line, figures it at 3 hours.
Work was still being done on landslide sites towards the end of the roadway, but this did not impede the flow of traffic. Access roads to the villages along the route are not scheduled to be completed until June or July.
There will only be toll booths in Colotepec, after the bridge, and in Barranca Larga. So people who live in the villages along the highway will have free transit from one town to another. It has also been reported that they will not have to pay the tolls at the ends of the highway.
We stopped San Pablo Coatlán, the biggest town next to the highway. The access road is now built but not the gas station and rest area that are part of the plan.
