FONATUR Takes Charge of Highway Repair Plan

This week FONATUR has been given the task of repairing the highway, carretera 307, that runs between Cancun and Chetumal. The roadway has been plagues with a series of sinkhole which have cause back up delays for over a year.

Luis Alegre Salazar, representative for the Mayan Train in Quintana Roo, confirmed that yesterday the federal government gave the authority to the National Fund for the Promotion of Tourism (FONATUR). One of the first commitments will be to repair the faults on the main highway of Quintana Roo, which currently has two sinkholes that delay vehicular traffic, for hours in either direction.

According to projections, by November and barring any setbacks, the road that connects Mexico’s main tourist destinations: Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Tulum, among others, should be completely passable once again.

“The director of FONATUR, Rogelio Jiménez Pons, announced to us that they will start operating on the road, and that one of the commitments is to be able to repair the road that has had problems and the economic resources will be allocated to help solve this failure that now represents a problem also for the tourist industry”, Salazar explained.

The sinkholes are located in the north, near Playa Paraiso and south of Playa del Carmen near Xpu Ha.

The first fracture is located at kilometer 307 on the Federal Highway 307, near the Playa Paraiso hotel complex. The failure was detected in February of this year, close to the area where a full collapse occurred in 2015. The second is located to the south of Puerto Aventuras, near Xpu Ha which sunk in June 2020.

Roberto Cintrón Gómez, president of the Hotel Association of Cancún, Puerto Morelos and Isla Mujeres, mentioned that there is great concern about these so-called sinkholes that are on the highway and how they affect mobility to the south of the state.

The Mexican Association of Travel Agencies (AMAV) raised its voice to ask for immediate action on the matter, because tourists on tours began to complain about the time they have to wait on the highway. I can take up to an hour on the affected stretches, negatively impacting other activities.

FONATUR is in charge of the Mayan Train project, which will pass over federal highway 307. The Tren Maya is scheduled to be completed in 2023.

Source: SIPSE