A recently rehabilitated 27-km stretch of the Pan American Highway in El Salvador that runs to the border with Guatemala was inaugurated in February in a ceremony attended by the country's president.
The roadway, which links the communities of El Portezuelo, near the city of Santa Ana, and San Cristóbal, is part of a national program to improve major roads that received a total of $120 million in IDB financing approved in 1991.
According to El Salvador President Armando Calderón Sol, the newly rehabilitated segment will substantially reduce operating costs, prevent accidents, and help local farmers get their corn, beans, coffee and other crops to market. Another gain will be to strengthen economic ties with neighboring countries. The works included repaving, restoring shoulders and drainage ditches, placement of road signs, expansion of four bridges, parking at the border customs facility and planting 7,000 trees.
In the meantime, crews have begun work on a 52-kilometer stretch of roadway that also runs to the Guatemala border, linking Santa Ana with Ahuachapán, and the latter with the El Jobo bridge over the La Paz River. The project is set for completion at the end of 1999.
The Ministry of Public Works, which is carrying out the rehabilitation program, is using a second IDB loan approved in 1994, for $225 million, to strengthen its ability to administer the highway system and to carry out other projects to improve roads and streets.