The bridge of Laguna Bojórquez, considered an essential project to facilitate traffic in the hotel zone of Cancun, will be rescued by the government of Quintana Roo and the National Fund for Tourism Promotion.
CANCUN — The bridge of Laguna Bojórquez, considered necessary to decongest traffic in the hotel zone of Cancun, will be rescued by the government of Quintana Roo and the National Fund for Tourism Promotion (Fondo Nacional de Fomento al Turismo, Fonatur, in Spanish), after federal budget cuts in 2015 and 2016 prevented the start of the work.
(Image: Noticaribe)
This was announced by the General Director of Fonatur, Miguel Alonso Reyes, interviewed after participating in the presentation of the expansion plan of Grupo Posadas, in the Tourist Fair of Acapulco 2017, who also said that from the Fund, “the bridge is a priority issue that we have towards Cancun.”
Although he acknowledged that there are no resources assigned in 2017 for this bridge, he said that this is a truly important work to facilitate vehicle mobility in Cancun, the main tourist destination by volume of tourists and economic impact.
“We are seeing alternatives to solve this issue, also we are talking with Governor Carlos Joaquin because his government has a great interest in reactivating infrastructure projects.” He said.
He advanced that the resources for the work could come from a mixed scheme, in association with the private initiative; Or with a mix of state, federal and, eventually, municipal resources.
In October 2015, the then director general of Fonatur, Héctor Gómez Barraza, announced that the bridge would be built in 2016, with a budget of $1 billion pesos, which would come from the fund in its entirety; a year before they received the authorization of environmental impact that allowed them to start the work.
In 2016 Fonatur assigned $240 million pesos to start the work, however, budget cuts announced by the federal government, stopped the construction.
The executive project states that the bridge is necessary because “the area known as Punta Cancun is a site where there are many houses, hotels, restaurants and various businesses, that keeps the streets always full of cars, which makes the traffic really slow”.
Among the benefits mentioned are that it will allow a better mobility in the hotel zone of Cancun, will reduce travel times for workers, residents and visitors and will improve traffic conditions and reduce pollution, noise, accidents and travel times in the most conflictive area of Kukulcán Boulevard.
The project was approved by the Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources (Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, SEMARNAT, in Spanish), and now it will be taken over by Fonatur and the Quintana Roo government.
The bridge would be supported by 28 columns and extend over a distance of 1,206.6 meters, making a curve, above the Bojórquez Lagoon, in which there is a high transit of boats and in the bottom of which are some endemic sea weed species, in a relatively deteriorated state, as can be read in the Manifestation of Environmental Impact.
To avoid possible damage to the mangrove vegetation, it was decided to clear these stretches by using a cable-stayed bridge for both approaches.
Source: eleconomista.com.mx
