Campeche's new bridge.Mexico’s second-longest bridge has been officially opened in Campeche, linkingĀ Isla del Carmen to the mainland.
Governor Alejandro Moreno CĆ”rdenas and Communications and Transportation Secretary Javier JimĆ©nez EpriĆŗ inaugurated the new Puente de la Unidad (Unity bridge) on Monday.
āThis is a bridge that belongs to all Campechanos, to all Mexicans,ā Governor Moreno said at the inauguration. āThis project fills us with pride, and it shows that us Campechanos can aspire to bigger things, and that we can do everything we say we’ll do.ā
Secretary JimƩnez said the bridge will not only benefit Campeche, but also the thousands of people who travel to the YucatƔn peninsula every year.
āThis inauguration represents the fulfillment of President AndrĆ©s Manuel LĆ³pez Obradorās promise to use federal resources on projects that optimize the efficiency of our infrastructure, benefit as many people as possible, and promote regional development,ā said JimĆ©nez.
The bridge was built over a period of more than two years, with an investment of almost 2 billion pesos (US $105 million), of which 250 million pesos came from the federal government. At 3.2 kilometers, it is the second-longest bridge in Mexico and the fifth-longest in Latin America.
It replaces the old Puente de la Unidad, built in 1982. The old bridge has been in a state of poor repair for at least 12 years, and will soon be unusable.
Moreno said the previous federal administrations had not taken the need for a new bridge seriously, and that the project is 12 years overdue.
āThis should have been built before my term,ā he said. āBut two federal administrations went by, 12 years, that the federal government didn’t support Campeche. But my responsibility was to build it, and finish it, and we did it in a record time of 24 months and 19 days.ā
The new bridge is expected to last for at least 50 years.
Source: Milenio (sp), La Jornada Maya (sp), MVS (sp), Tribuna Campeche (sp)
