Costera Pavement Collapses – Again

(Acapulco, NA 8 September) Around 50 feet of pavement in the Costera Alemán sank yesterday evening around 6:15 pm. The incident was in the eastbound curb lane, in Club Deportivo just before the Convention Center traffic circle. The cave-in was about 40 inches deep. A city bus on the route between Zapata and the Naval Bus was passing over the section when the pavement in the lane broke apart and fell. The rear suspension of the bus was severly damaged. A traffic police patrol car arrived to divert traffic around the hole, but public works and CAPAMA trucks did not arrive for nearly an hour or more.

This was the second severe cave-in along the Costera Alemán in the current rainy season. The reasons are the same: a weak infrastructure, made even less resistant because of soggy soil, simply gave way, causing the road to drop by over three feet.

At 2:48 pm the previous day, a similar incident occurred not far from the Costera in the Magallanes district, near the shopping complex La Diana. Once more the culprit was said to be the decrepit state of the storm drain sewer and pipes that lay underneath. The cave-in was on Juan Pérez Steet, a few steps from Federal 1 Junior High. CAPAMA estimated that the road would re-open within two days.