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Baluarte Bridge

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Dionisio Pérez-Jácome Friscione

05 Jan 2012

The greatest investment in infrastructure in Mexican history has been used to promote large-scale projects whose dimensions and impact have made them some of the most impressive in the world. This is the case of the Baluarte Bridge, the world’s highest suspension bridge.

One of the main goals of the Federal Government’s security strategy, in addition to fighting criminals, is to provide equal opportunities for all Mexicans. Because a more inclusive and egalitarian society is a fairer and safer society.

Since the outset, the current administration has been convinced that infrastructure development (particularly in the highway sector), triggers economic growth, promotes competitiveness and serves as a catalyst for increasing opportunities for people. That is why President Felipe Calderón declared that this would be the infrastructure administration. He set the goal of changing the face of Mexico through the greatest ever construction of public works throughout the country with a strategic, long-term, environmentally sustainable vision.

The Baluarte Bridge is a palpable example of the importance of infrastructure for Mexico. The result of an over 2 billion-peso investment, this bridge has a length of 1,124 m supported by 152 steel suspenders, with a 520 m central span and four lanes suspended at a height of over 400 m, greater than that of the Eiffel Tower (324 m).

The Baluarte Bridge is located in the Sierra del Espinazo del Diablo, at the point where the highway crosses the River Baluarte. Construction of the bridge involved overcoming major challenges and the difficulty of crossing the Sierra Madre Occidental.

The Baluarte Bridge meets the challenge of in connecting the country more efficiently in order to remove communities from the isolation caused by large distances. The Baluarte Bridge reflects the Federal Government’s capacity to reach places that no other government has ever reached and to bring people into contact with more services such as schools, hospitals and job opportunities, to bring firms closer to inputs and their markets and to promote economic development as a mechanism for contributing to security.

The Baluarte Bridge forms part of the Durango-Mazatlán Highway. Once opened, it will reduce travel time between these two cities by approximately six hours for haulage transport. This large reduction in travel time will significantly improve the quality of life of families in the region while promoting commercial and tourism development.

The Durango-Mazatlán highway is part of a far more ambitious project: the highway axis linking the ports of Mazatlán and Matamoros. By providing a transversal link between the Pacific and the Atlantic, we will provide greater access to hundreds of localities in nine Mexican states: Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Jalisco, Nayarit, Nuevo León, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas and Zacatecas.

The unprecedented boost for infrastructure demanded by Mexico, particularly the completion of the Baluarte Bridge, is a clear sign that Mexico is planting the seed of an orderly, inclusive, better society with a better transport network. President Calderón’s government will continue promoting public works that will promote economic activity and regional development and above all, create more opportunities for Mexican families.

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