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
