Manzanillo highway expansion delays truckers, Digi Mart USA News (Manzanillo, Mexico): Expansion works on the Manzanillo-Colima highway continue to affect cargo trucking, with congestion keeping vehicles stopped for between five and nine hours. Operators also face higher fuel costs and reduced productivity, even though the works are close to completing four years since they began, according to Yax Tzel Nolasco Gómez, president of the Unión de Transportistas de Carga de Manzanillo (UTCM) and state delegate of the Confederación Nacional de Transportistas Mexicanos (Conatram).
Since July, the publication T21 has documented the saturation of the Port of Manzanillo and the effects that road works were having on cargo trucking operations. More than four months later, the problem persists, and transporters warn that the works are not advancing enough to meet the planned delivery dates.
“Unfortunately, the saturation has not improved. The expansion of the Manzanillo to Colima highway continues to affect us completely, mainly transport,” Nolasco said.
The road expansion covers approximately 80 kilometers in each direction and is close to four years of work, without the remaining stages having been completed, according to the union leader. Delivery is scheduled for December 2026, but the sector considers that unlikely given the pace of work.
For the section known as La Salada, completion is planned for early in the second quarter of 2027, while the Tepalcates bridge is also delayed, according to Nolasco.
“Unfortunately, they have not met the delivery dates. They have a date scheduled for this December, which we believe is completely utopian, because every day we travel this stretch of road and we do not see progress that would allow it to be concluded,” he said.
The effects are not limited to travel times. Congestion forces vehicles to stop constantly, which increases diesel consumption and reduces the number of trips operators can complete during the week or month.
“It is not the same for a vehicle to travel continuously as to have to stop every seven, eight, 10 meters and even remain stopped for between five and nine hours,” he emphasized.
In addition to these problems, the lack of signage at the intersections affected by the works has, according to the UTCM representative, caused accidents and prompted meetings with authorities to request better traffic conditions.
The first expansion stage, covering the Manzanillo-Tecomán section, was contracted by the federal government, while the government of Colima holds the concession for the second stage, the leader explained. He said the union will continue requesting intervention from all three levels of government.
The effects on road transport persist as the Port of Manzanillo records growth in container traffic. According to figures from the Administración del Sistema Portuario Nacional (Asipona) Manzanillo, between January and September 2026, 3,154,778 TEU (20-foot container equivalents) moved through the Port of Manzanillo, a 9.5% increase compared with the same period of 2025.
Over that period, export container movements rose 13.9%, while import movements grew 2.2%.
