public works

Repair works jams traffic

NORIEL GUTIERREZ/La Prensa

killer commute: Drivers face a long haul between Panama City and Colón because of the massive project to refurbish Vía Transístmica, the main thoroughfare between the two cities.1082711

Junior Castillo’s commute between the capital and Colón, always exhausting, has become unbearable. Castillo, like many Panama City residents, travels the 80-kilometer stretch of the Vía Transístmica twice daily, a trip that frequently takes three hours each way.

That’s because the deteriorated two-lane highway, built in the 1950s by the United States military, is finally getting attention from the Ministerio de Obras Públicas (MOP).

The plan to rehabilitate the road is divided into 10 phases, and calls for expanding the highway to four lanes between the capital and Agua Buena, in Chilibre, and at least three lanes in all other sections. MOP crews will also be resurfacing shoulders and repairing drainage.

The plan, however, seems to have failed to take into account the massive bottleneck caused by the construction work. When asked about the traffic problem on the highway, Benjamin Colamarco, MOP director, waxed philosophic.

“The inconvenience will pass,” he said. “But the work will remain.”

Bus driver Jorge Agudo, on the other hand, sees the mounting commute reflected in his skyrocketing fuel costs.

“It takes an hour to move from from the Chagres River bridge to the Don Bosco Bridge in Chilibre, a section that used to take just a few minutes,” he commented.

The section Agudo describes is one of the slowest along the route at present, while road crews have cordoned off longer stretches for repaving, slowing traffic to a crawl.

Jorge Batista, another driver on the Chilibre-Panama bus route, explained that, in addition to the time issue, the dismal state of the road forces large vehicles and buses to move even slower.

“There are places where we have to go 10 kilometers an hour,” he complained.

A similar complaint is heard among taxi drivers in the area, who say that the unrelenting traffic makes it difficult to respond quickly when customers call.

But it’s not just drivers who are frustrated by the road repairs. Edilma Moreno, who has sold homemade hot sauce at the Chagres River bridge for more than 15 years, noted that the long delays have made people think twice about stopping at her stand.

Adriano Ferrer, director of inspections for MOP, said the road work will be completed sometime next year.