Arizona business welcomes possible completion of Sonoran highway

VIEW LARGER Sonora's Highway 15 stretches from the U.S.-Mexico border in Nogales to the border with the Mexican state of Sinaloa at Don Estación.

Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes

HERMOSILLO, Mex. — For now the third time, Mexico’s president has announced an end date for the construction of a major roadway through the northern state of Sonora.

In a Monday morning press conference, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, or AMLO, announced he would visit Sonora on Sept. 2 to inaugurate the four-lane interstate. It runs roughly 400 miles from Sinaloa to Nogales, at Arizona’s southern border. Previous completion dates, including one in May given by AMLO, have not been met.

“It’s something that I think that the state of Arizona, the whole western part of the United States and all of Mexico should celebrate,” said Lance Jungmeyer, president of the Nogales-based Fresh Produce Association of the Americas.

Once complete, the highway will cut down on travel time for visitors and commercial trucks alike, and will be safer to boot, according to Guillermo Valencia, chair of the port authority in Nogales.

Billions of dollars of Mexican produce and manufactured goods get to the border on that highway every year. The highway could eventually be a part of planned road network going all the way to Canada, according to Jungmeyer.

This story is from the Fronteras Desk, a collaboration of Southwestern public radio stations, including NPR 89.1. Read more from the Fronteras Desk.