Fourteen percent of cargo trucks are over the legal weight limit, causing major damage to highways around the country, the Transport Ministry (SCT) said.

The SCT’s director of highway maintenance, Salvador Fernández Ayala, said that while overweight vehicles are causing damage to road infrastructure a lack of checkpoints to check cargo weights and dimensions was hampering enforcement.

He also explained that the maximum cargo weight permitted for trucks on Mexican roads is 75.5 tonnes. That’s already far higher than what is permitted by Mexico’s USMCA trading partners: Canada allows trucks to carry 63 tonnes, while the United States only permits 36.3 tonnes.

In 2018, Fernández reported on the poor state of the country’s tarmac: 35% of highways were categorized as being in poor condition and 40% were classified as acceptable. By December authorities plan to have only 10% of highways in poor condition and 59% classified as acceptable.

The SCT’s road infrastructure project spending could surpass 50 billion pesos (about US $2.52 billion) before its conclusion in 2023.

With reports from Milenio and La Jornada