News & Articles

Jiménez explained that the road concessionaire, Autopistas del Sol, has requested an inspection of the site to evaluate the work on the possible re-opening of the 11 kilometre stretch of road. Autopistas, in its request, says that the work has progressed enough to warrant the inspection and the imminent re-opening.

As such, MOPT engineers began the inspection on Friday and are expected to table their report to the minister by Tuesday, which is to indicate if the road is ready for re-opening or not.

"We are going to wait for the report of the inspectors. On Tuesday we should have sufficient information on the progress of the work and to determine if the work is satisfactory to the engineers and is not an estimate of when it will be", said Jiménez.

The stretch of road between kilometres 37 and 48 was closed on June 12 by the MOPT following a series of land slides and rock falls that caused a number of traffic accidents and resulted in one death.

The Colegio Federado de Ingenieros y Arquitectos had pressured the government for the closure, saying the road was unsafe.

The road closure was to allow work crews to work freely to shore up some 15 points along the highway where problems have been occurring.

Autopistas at the time said it has already completed work on 11 of the 15 points which includes the installation of metal screens, metal fences and lining the banks with concrete.

Autopistas says it will need the government to expropriate more land at several points to be able to change the angle of the slopes. The MOPT said earlier this week that is will have to divert funds from other public works projects for the expropriation.