SAN JUAN DEL RÍO, QRO.– “There’s no money.” This was the unequivocal admission made by the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications, and Transportation (SICT) during the 9th National Road Safety Congress held this week.
The ruling, made by Juan Manuel Mares Reyes , executive director of Technical Development at SICT, highlighted the fragility of the Mexican highway network, where solutions seem to be reduced to preserving what exists and appealing to the shared responsibility of users.
“We don’t have the money to expand them. We don’t have the money to build alternative routes, but the participation of freight transporters is very important. On these 12-meter-high roads, please don’t invade us and don’t convert them to four lanes. They’re causing a lot of loss of life. This isn’t a complaint, it’s a favor ,” Mares said.
A contrast between the lack of public resources and the demands of the sector. When asked by T21 what technical criteria are used to prioritize investments, Mares explained that the SICT conducts surveys of the road network every year.
The statement ultimately confirmed the paradox: the institution charged with providing solutions said it has no money and can only manage the deteriorated infrastructure instead of transforming it.
The words resonated throughout the room. Salvador Saavedra, president of the Automotive Industry Sector and technical director of Entorno Industrial , took the floor to point out the obvious: concessioned highways like the Arco Norte have serious flaws (cracks and repairs in the asphalt where concrete should be used), rendering them nearly impassable despite the high tolls.
He also requested clarity regarding the application of NOM-033-SCT-2-2023 , which, starting next November, will require crossings at toll booths to be limited to no more than three minutes.
Mares responded that the protocol is still being worked on, although he defended the rule as “a major step.”
Figures that reveal the scale of the challenge
During the panel, SICT specialists shared data that shed light on the state of the road network and road safety in Mexico:
- The federal highway network comprises 52,000 kilometers (km) ; of these, nearly 11,000 km are toll roads.
- The main highway system includes 15 trunk corridors covering nearly 19,500 km .
- Around 60% of freight and 93.7% of passengers travel on these routes .
- Since approximately 2000, there have been more than 500,000 accidents and nearly 90,000 deaths in the country.
- Globally, the first decade of road safety action (2011-2020) accounted for 1.35 million deaths per year and between 40 and 50 million people injured .
The contrast was provided by Enrique González , of Grupo Valloran/Meta , who showed corridors equipped with fiber optics, control centers, and safe stops free of charge for operators.
Meanwhile, the National Guard , through Lieutenant Colonel Diego Damián Torres Martínez , head of the Balam Command and Control Center, stressed that accidents continue to be recurrent and that seatbelt and speed reduction operations are barely enough to contain a structural problem.
The panel made it clear that infrastructure is the weak link in road safety. Without resources for expansion and modernization, roads will continue to suffer from a backlog that translates into accidents, lost lives, and costs for road users.
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