ORIZABA, VER. – During one of the busiest times on the highway connecting Puebla with Orizaba, it was striking to see the entire highway body completely desolate past the La Esperanza toll booth. The reason: the landslide in the Cumbres de Maltrata area that occurred on October 25 and which has made traffic impossible on the aforementioned route, with serious effects on auto transport and therefore on logistics in the south-southeast region of the country.
“The situation is posing a challenge to the auto transport industry, collapsing the circulation for the double-articulated trucks coming from the port of Veracruz and the southeast, because they are having to take the route to the port and then go up to Xalapa. Normally the Veracruz-Puebla route could be done in 5-6 hours, but now we are doing up to 12 hours, with the fatigue that this implies for the operator,” a transporter told T21, describing the challenges faced by those who operate the route.
What is striking to the transport sector, not only in the Orizaba-Córdoba region, but also in other regions, is that after more than 15 days of dealing with what happened, the earth removal activities are not progressing with the required urgency. “Some authorities have informally told us that it will take eight to 12 months to reestablish the route, what is worrying is that they say this without recognizing the impact that is being had,” said another affected transporter.
“This is a reflection of the fact that road transport is not given the necessary importance and the impact it has on the economy, and where the government is not aware of it,” agreed various businessmen about the importance of the route and its reestablishment.
Based on the versions collected by T21 from business owners in the central region of Veracruz, this situation has led to a review with customers of the rates that must be implemented due to changes in routes or increases in traffic.
In a video shared by Grúas Grisa, taken last week, the severity of the collapse and the clean-up activities that are being carried out can be identified, but they seem insufficient for the seriousness of the situation, as can be seen in the following video.
With the most recent data available for the MEX-150D highway, on the Puebla-Orizaba route in the Acatzingo-Cd. Mendoza section, the Average Annual Daily Traffic (TPDA) in 2023 was 36,660 vehicles , but what stands out from the information from the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT) is the composition of the vehicular flow of the articulated tractor-trailer (T3-S2) and doubly articulated (T3-S2-R4) configurations, where the first averages 10.6% of the total in both directions, while the second is at 6.5 percent.
For reference, on the Mexico-Puebla route, the T3-S2 configuration averages 7% of total traffic, with a TDPA of 33,948 vehicles, while the T3-S2-R4 configuration averages 2.5%, according to SICT data.
On one of the alternate routes through the Cumbres de Acultzingo, the SICT recommended the transit of light vehicles and cargo units up to 3.5 tons of cargo, while for the rest of the configurations the option recommended by the institution is Veracruz-Xalapa-Perote-Puebla-Mexico City.
