BRIEFS. transportation

Panamá-Colón Road nearly one-third finished

Carlos Lemos/la prensa

April 2009: Work on the Panamá-Colón Highway will be finished next year.987678

Despite setbacks due to heavy rains last year and this year, the Panamá-Colón Highway is 30.5 percent done, authorities from the Ministerio de Obras Pública (Mop) have reported.

Mop's Special Projects director Carlos Ho said there have been 100 millimeters more rain per square meter in 2007 than in 2006, which means 100 liters more per month, according to statistics from the Autoridad del Canal de Panamá (ACP).

Of the 34.7 kilometers (approx. 21.5 miles) of highway that needed to be built, 22 have already been laid. Work on the construction of the pilings needed to support bridges over the Chagres and the Cabuya rivers has begun as well.

Ho said that "the recent rains affected our performance and productivity by 15 percent; that is, what sometimes take us one day, with rain, takes us six days." The quality of the soil was also affected by the rain, Ho said. The highway is expected to be paved by March of this year. It should be open to the public by April 2009.

Some 1,300 Panamanians are employed in the work on the highway.