With an investment of 112,173 million pesos (mdp) for the period 2025-2030 , the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT) is advancing in the expansion and modernization of 10 priority highway axes , whose extension is two thousand 220 kilometers (km) in 14 federal entities of Mexico.
Carlos Arceo Castañeda, director general of Highways at the SICT, said the work also includes construction and, in some cases, maintenance of state roads.
“Investment is never enough; the important thing here is to consider where it’s invested. With what we have right now, we’re going to stretch it as much as possible to meet the greatest possible goal with fewer resources. That’s a given,” he stated during his participation in the Dialogue with Engineers event , organized by the College of Civil Engineers of Mexico (CICM) .
“We are building roads to close the inequality gap. We’re not just thinking about a road, but about the benefits that road will bring to the communities,” Carlos Arceo emphasized.
Meanwhile, he specified that the investment in bridges and interchanges, which represent 16.13 km in nine states of the country, will be 12.505 billion pesos .
He recalled that some of the projects being carried out this year include the Cuautla-Tlapa-Marquelia Highway, connecting Morelos, Puebla, and Guerrero; the Pachuca-Huejutla-Tamazunchale Highway, between San Luis Potosí and Hidalgo; and the Bavispe-Nuevo Casas Grandes Highway, from Sonora to Chihuahua, among others.
Juan José Orozco y Orozco, vice president of Government and Legislative Relations at CICM, emphasized that each new kilometer reduces distances and “tears down the walls of inequality.” He also asserted that it is important to build with quality to avoid accidents, which means lower costs for users and for Mexico.
“It means that public investment is more efficient, but above all, more effective, because a quality project lasts longer and requires fewer resources for maintenance. And the better we do the original work, the fewer maintenance resources it will require, and the lower the economic and environmental impact it will have,” he explained.
Arceo Castañeda detailed that in 2024, 58% of cargo in Mexico was moved by road, that is, approximately 572 million tons, while by ship it was 272.6 million tons, by train 135.7 million tons, and 1.3 million tons by plane, figures that will increase as the different projects of the current federal administration are completed.
Under this scenario, the official commented, without providing details, that part of the actions planned for rail infrastructure is to “unload” roads and direct freight via rail.
“58% of freight passes through our roads, and we’re trying to balance this with what’s being implemented in rail infrastructure projects, so that less freight travels on the roads and more freight opts to use the railroad. There’s currently a plan for Highway 57, where we’re trying to modernize the route from Saltillo to Monclova and widen it to two lanes; today, it’s seven meters wide,” he said.
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