It will be building 17.9 kilometres of Mexico's most important construction project for 136 million euro.

Mexico's Office of the Secretary of Communications and Transport has awarded FCC Construcción, in a joint venture with La Peninsular, a contract for the 17.9-kilometre-long third section of phase two of the construction of the Mazatlán/Durango motorway, for 136 million euro.

The company will be building the two-lane motorway from kilometre point 168.400 to kilometre point 186.300, which includes the construction of 16 tunnels and 12 bridges.

This contract strengthens FCC Construcción's presence in Mexico, where it recently took home the contract for 47.3 kilometres of the Ávila/Camacho/Tihuatlán dual carriageway for 91 million euro, and in 2007 the contract for the 85-kilometre-long Nuevo Necaxa/Tihuatlán dual carriageway for 400 million euro.

The construction of this motorway is the most important public works job Mexico has tackled in recent years, because it is one of the country's biggest, most expensive road infrastructure projects, as it crosses the western Sierra Madre. The motorway, which will link the Mexican Pacific with the central northern area of the country and then with the Gulf of Mexico, will go into service in 2012. Altogether it is 230 kilometres long and will feature 63 tunnels, 115 structures and a 394-metre-high bridge over the Baluarte River

During its first year the motorway is expected to see 2,500 vehicles a day, and this figure will increase as times goes by, as will the lanes, which will be twinned to four. The motorway will save motorists three and a half hours.

Attached: Motorway Stages
One
Durango section: 23.6 km long.
Two
Durango/Otinapa junction section: 24.6 km long.
Three
Otinapa junction/El Salto: 47.6 km long.
Four
El Salto junction/Las Adjuntas: 19.4 km. Work in progress.