The New Highway From Guadalajara -A Catalyst For This Market

Robert:

"A new highway from Guadalajara? I'll believe it when I see it!"

"Then just look at Google Earth. There it is, well under way, right under your nariz, cutting through the mountains from Jala towards Las Varas."

For years there was talk of this amazing new highway, that would drop the driving time from Guadalajara to Puerto Vallarta from a white-knuckled five hours, to a much more comfortable and much safer three hours (some say even less time than that).

Those of us who have lived here a long time usually shrugged this talk off, with the cynical, "It will happen when it happens" attitude. It was never anything we promised to clients as imminent.

But, in late December of 2011, the crews and bulldozers arrived in Jala, Nayarit en masse, and work began on the first 80 kms, from Jala into the mountains.

Jala is a town on the existing four lane freeway from Tepic to Guadalajara. So, when the higway is open, Guadalajarans will head out on the existing freeway just as they do now, but when reaching Jala (just before the Ceborucco volcano), they will exit and swing southwest on the new highway.

This first phase, from Jala to near Las Varas, will be a four lane super highway, with two tunnels for wildlife to cross (deer, jaguars, etc.). The longer of the two tunnels, called Nayaguar, is to be 800 meters long, and will enable deer and jaguars to roam their natural habitat without crossing the highway. 

Even now on Google Earth's imagery, if you locate Jala, Nayarit you will see long stretches of the new highway leaving the existing super highway from Tepic to Guadalajara and extending southwest into the mountains.

The satellite images currently on Google Earth were taken on October 11 of 2012; so the progress you see is what was done in the first ten months of work. Undoubtedly, in the additional eight months since those satellite images were taken, a great deal more progress has been made.

The second phase, from just inland of Las Varas, and on to Vallarta, will be a wide two lane highway, just a few kms inland from the existing coastal hiway 200, but both straighter and better engineered.

The new highway will swing to within 1.5 kms of La Cruz and Bucerias, with an exit/entry for local traffic of course, before cutting back inland toward Valle Banderas, then to San Jose del Valle, then crossing the Ameca River and entering Jalisco at Ixtapa, finally terminating on the northeast edge of Vallarta. 

The projected completion date is late 2014.

When this new highway is open, it will make accessing the Bay of Banderas significantly quicker, safer and easier for people driving from Guadalajara and beyond.

Already, some savvy Mexicans are taking advantage of the depressed prices here, and buying in advance of the highway opening, because that event will undoubtedly bring many new buyers into this area.

It's something to consider with regard to the potential return on investment at today's low prices.

Robert Foster