PANAMA CITY, April 8 (
Xinhua) -- Panamanian President Martin Torrijos Tuesday inspected the beginning of the paving of an 80-km interoceanic highway, which will connect the Pacific to the Atlantic. "Since 1990, this mega project has been promised by all the governments before us. Today it is finally a reality that is being built and must be finished by April of 2009," Torrijos said. He said the highway represents better development opportunities that will generate future economic potentials. "It is necessary so Panama continues growing in its logistic role on world commerce and to offer jobs and a better level of living for the population," the president said amid the noisy paving machine. The Panama City-Colon City highway, with an investment of 215.8million U.S. dollars, will have four 3.6 meters wide lanes and cross all Panamanian territory parallel to the Panama Canal. Odebrecht, a Brazilian company, has contracted in the project.
Editor's Comment: They started pouring the cement yesterday on the first segment of the extension of the four-lane highway that will connect Panama City to Colon. This is a highway that should have been built since about 1942. Finally, Thank God, there will be an actual no-kidding highway running from Panama City to Colon. Getting over to the other side has always been a torture, thanks to the little two-lane road that (currently) runs through the middle of the country. In addition to this major highway construction project, government authorities are also widening the old road to four lands, two in each direction, for the parts of the road that are still two lane. So, sooner or later and when these roads are done, we will be able to pop over to the Colon side in no time. Hallelujah.
Keep Building: The economic power of the United States comes in no small part from the extension of the interstate highway system. Goods, merchandise, exports, people all need access to an area or it's practically worthless. There are vast areas of Panama that are considered to be almost without value because there is no road access, electrical service or drinking water, and forget things like Internet and access to good health care. The government of Panama should start building new roads and highways right now just as hard as they can and literally never stop. They have to open the place up for development, and the country can't develop if you can't get there. Greater macro economic growth has resulted in historically high budgets for infrastructure development projects, and these are the seeds from which future prosperity will grow.
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