Mexico’s road crisis from poor maintenance

Mexico’s road network is suffering a crisis due to a sustained period of poor maintenance and underfunding. This is the finding of the Mexican Secretariat of Communications and Transport (3067 SCT). Its report reveals that almost 113,000km of the country’s federal road system, around 30% of the entire network, is in need of repairs or upgrades. Poor road conditions have slowed vehicle speeds on the network and also been the cause of crashes, an issue SCT is keen to alleviate. However the combination of insufficient funding for maintenance as well as poor weather conditions have exacerbated the problems on the network. A drop in the funding for road repairs has been a major contributor to the issue of road conditions in Mexico. The problem is known to be particularly acute in Tlaxcala and Oaxaca. Meanwhile Durango, Queretaro and Chihuahua have the best road conditions in the country according to the SCT report.