An important highway connecting the Mexican border city of Tijuana to Ensenada in Baja California has collapsed: a cement truck that was traveling along the road fell into the Pacific Ocean, however, the driver managed to escape unharmed. Holes as deep as 130 feet formed along the picturesque highway, with damage stretching as far as 800 feet. Government officials arrived to survey the damage and engineers sugges it will take at least six months to repair the damages.
The highway runs a little over 60 miles: the collapse took place at the 55th mile, close to the city of Ensenada, an area that is known for geological instability. Indeed, the fault of San Miguel, which is linked to the San Andreas fault, runs not far from the highway. An earthquake measuring 4.6 on the Richter scale struck 60 miles south of Ensenada on December 19th. Ramiro Martínez Medina, the engineer in charge of reconstruction, revealed that the collapse was caused by a number of seismic disturbances over several years.
Mexico's Tourism Secretary has begun an operation to divert traffic: the road is used by 10,800 vehicles daily. Drivers will be using the freeway between Ensenada and Tijuana until repairs can be made or an alternative route is constructed. The mayor of Ensenada has stated that traffic should not have been allowed by the Roads and Bridges Commission given the damages already apparent in the fault zone.
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