Mexico highway leapfrogs drug lands to link 2 seas
Mexico highway leapfrogs drug lands to link 2 seas
By KATHERINE CORCORAN, Associated Press | June 29, 2013 | Updated: June 30, 2013 11:52am
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Photo By Dario Lopez-Mills
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This June 11, 2013 photo shows an aerial view of the recently completed cable-stayed bridge called the
Baluarte in the western Sierra Madre near Concordia, Mexico. The Durango-Mazatlan Highway vies to
be one of Mexico's greatest engineering feats,designed to bring people, cargo and legitimate commerce
safely through a mountain range known until now for marijuana, opium poppies and an accident prone
road called the Devil's Backbone. Photo: Dario Lopez-Mills[/font]
ESPINAZO DEL DIABLO, Mexico (AP) — Lavender-blue peaks of the western Sierra Madre jut as far as the eye can see, the only hints of civilization: a tendril of smoke from burning corn residue, a squiggle of dirt road.
Then out of nowhere, a flat ribbon of concrete runs like a roller coaster over giant pylons, burrowing in and out of the mountainside until it seems to leap midair over a 400-meter (1,200-foot) river gorge via the world's highest cable-stayed bridge, called the Baluarte.
The Durango-Mazatlan Highway is one of Mexico's greatest engineering feats, 115 bridges and 61 tunnels designed to bring people, cargo and legitimate commerce safely through a mountain range known until now for marijuana, opium poppies and an accident-prone road called the Devil's Backbone.
Even those protesting the project say the 230-kilometer-long (140-mile) highway, expected to be completed in August, will change northern Mexico dramatically for the good. It will link port cities on the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific by a mere 12-hour drive, and Mazatlan with San Antonio, Texas, in about the same time. The highway will eventually move 5 million vehicles a year, more than four times the number on the old road, plus more produce and goods from Asia to the Mexican interior and southern U.S.
More:
http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Mexico-highway-leapfrogs-drug-lands-to-link-2-seas-4638085.php
= new reply since forum marked as read
I think I'd rather fly. 
