New Highway to Durango

We left Lo de Marcos the morning of March 17th to start our journey home.  We arrived in Mazatlan that evening.  We had planned to stay one night but were there 4 days while repairs are being done to our friends' 5th wheel trailer.

We did a side trip with the car up Hwy 40 toward Durango on March 19th.  The government is building a new toll (cuota) road on the route.  Many tunnels and long expansion bridges have been built on the section constructed so far. When finished, the route will include 63 tunnels and 11 bridges. The new highway will cut the trip duration from about 8 hours to about 3 hours. Huge difference! It will also eliminate the Devil's Backbone, a narrow twisting dangerous part of the route that follows the ridge line for many miles.

This is mostly very rugged mountainous terrain and this new highway is a major construction feat. The number of tunnels is huge but the there are two bridges that are spectacular. The goal of our day trip is to get a glimpse of the Baluarte Bridge...the highest bridge in North America and the highest cable-stayed bridge in the world.

Passing over the new highway just before joining it.

Looking down at one of the new bridges.

As we travel along the old road, we get glimpses of the new road, tunnels, and bridges.

 

 

 

Longer view. Behind the hill on left is a big bridge.

We traveled a few more miles down the old road and finally see the bridge. It is a very large suspension bridge.

See the large crane atop the centre tower.

John looks down at the bridge and tunnel construction.

In this view, you can see right to the bottom of the centre tower.

Max zoom in. Crane and Crane truck.

Here is a shot at maximum zoom. Without a tripod to hold the camera steady, it is a little fuzzy. Note that there is another crane (red and white) as well as a crane truck (yellow). You can begin to feel the size of this bridge.

The centre tower.

When we got back to the campground, I did some Internet searching and found that this was not the Baluarte Bridge...it was the much smaller El Carrizo Bridge. The big bridge is on the other side of the mountain, out of view. We will just have to wait until the highway is completed in 2012 (oops missed the announced date), or 2013 (not by the looks of what needs to get done)...maybe 2014 on our way back from our next trip. It's Mexico! Google Baluarte Bridge to learn more of this splendid bridge with a Guennis World Record.

Tunnel construction.

This area also includes two tunnels. The pic above shows one section of pre-cast tunnel ready to move into position and join with the tunnel on the right. To the left is the entrance to another tunnel the curves around and joins with the left side of the bridge.

Hidden tunnel entrance.

Find the tunnel entrance...look to the left of the squiggily road.