The urban area formed by the municipalities of Tampico and Ciudad Madero in Tamaulipas has a unique new boundary marker: a half-paved road.
While residents on the Ciudad Madero side of Calle Morelos have a newly paved lane, their neighbors in Tampico are still driving on unpaved dirt, a situation that has been mocked and criticized on social media.
Luis Carlos Leal Contreras, director of public works in Ciudad Madero, said the paving project began cooperatively, but when Tampico ran out of resources, Ciudad Madero decided to go ahead and finish its half of the street as planned.
But the Tampico director of public works, Pedro Pablo Rangel, tells a slightly different tale.
“When it became known that Ciudad Madero was going to pave Calle Morelos, I approached Luis Carlos Leal Contreras and I invited them to work together, half and half, but they didn’t want to … what they did is absurd, they are doing things badly,” Rangel said, adding that paving only half the street will cause future problems with uneven compaction.
A Tampico councilor who sits on the public works commission has called for a meeting to review the project status.
“It is not Madero’s responsibility anymore if it is affecting neighbors on our side,” Mayra Ojeda said.
Ciudad Madero Mayor Adrián Oseguera later explained that his city had no choice but to go ahead with the paving project because the funds had already been approved by the municipal council.
Oseguera said he has a good working relationship with the mayor of Tampico, and the Tampico side of the project will be completed in 2022.
“There is excellent coordination between my friend [Tampico Mayor Jesús Nader] and me and the public works directors,” Oseguera said.
He urged Calle Morelos residents not to lose hope, and assured them that the project would indeed be completed.
“What happened is that we had already approved it and the neighbors insisted we do it, but there is good communication and it is not the only street we will [pave] with Tampico,” Oseguera said.
