Transport Ministry says 14% of cargo trucks are over weight limit

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

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
Mexico's navy has deployed 11 coastal sargassum collection vessels, each with a collection capacity of 20 tonnes; one offshore sargassum collection vessel; two amphibious sargassum collection vessels; 18 smaller boats; and 13,230 meters of containment barriers in Isla Mujeres, Benito Juárez, Puerto Morelos, Playa del Carmen, Cozumel, Tulum and Othón P. Blanco.

Playa del Carmen starts October with new sargassum arrivals, though seasonal decline is underway

0
The threat of sargassum remains active along Quintana Roo's coastline, but a progressive reduction is expected heading into November and December. 
Students from the Emiliano Zapata Popular Revolutionary Union took to the streets of Toluca in México state to commemorate the students killed on Oct. 2, 1968, in Tlatelolco and the 43 missing students from Ayotzinapa.

Mexico’s week in review: Peso sinks to 18 as school safety, storms and trade talks dominate

1
Attacks on and by students collided with the anniversaries of past violence this week, while the peso behaved as erratically as the weather. Here's what happened the week of Sept. 28 in Mexico.
Aerial view of the malecon and downtown of La Paza, Baja California Sur, at sunset

Mexico’s fastest-growing states aren’t the ones having the most children

0
Why are Quintana Roo and Baja California Sur leading the country for population growth, even as their birth rates plummet?
BETA Version - Powered by Perplexity