Loreto, Road hazards

Driving through town is not for the "beautiful people" these days. Actually I think its fun, especially a couple of months ago in Miramar. Where else can you drive up a 45 degree incline and encounter a gaping 4 meters deep hole on BOTH sides of your narrow lane approaching oncoming traffic that originates behind a blind curve!? WOO HOO!

These road hazards right now need to be announced.
So if you'll be driving or even renting a car you'll need to be aware:

This is right over BOTH southbound lanes at the entrance of town



this is a close up of what's holding it on~




that damn sign has been like that for a little over two weeks. I know as I drive by it every morning. Its even been featured in the newspaper last week, big color photo for several days and its still there!


And in town the entertainment abounds even in front of the shop. Don't bring down your beemer convertible just yet!


close-up of the totally buried rear wheel~


There are a lot of very heavy vehicles such as the above one ( a city truck) that travel through town, even on the in process of being repaired main throughfares....huge dumptrucks, pipas (water trucks), cement mixers, huge double trailer semis with cement and rebar for the hotel mission reconstruction* edit see bottom, that I see drive right out in front of my open door every few minutes! The pipe that was laid for the improved infrastructure is not being installed correctly (comments from several regular clients to my coffee shop that are local ingineros~ I know [em]nothing[/em] about this kind of stuff) and the road above it is not being compacted properly. Along the sides of the streets where pipes leading to registros (in English..."cesspools"?) the ground is now soft because of constant watering (to keep the dust down, no comment on this subject :mad and lowest point collection. Worse, the cars constantly moving over it further compact the dirt and there are large holes all along the streets where cars park (if they can find parking!). Many of these tubos underneath are leaking and will need to be re-installed. The large hole that sunk the municipio truck above was uncovered less than two weeks ago to install some kind of central registro. I don;'t know the plumbing lingo so sorry! In front of the Cuatros Altos restaurant and to the tortilleria that area had been uncovered and covered over several times so its likely that this too is very soft. Many people have reported sunken cars and trucks throughout town. So take it easy and just drive slowly and take in the scenery, and if it happens to you, well...its an adventure!

My advice on the highway sign is 1) drive really fast under it and hope statistics is with you. or 2) drive off the shoulder to the West (right) side of it! That's what I do.

Be very careful.


edit: all of these heavy vehicles are not entirely for the hotel mission reconstruction but the loaded semis that I have seen are for that project. Also there are two stores that sell bag cement and both are in the center of town (one next to where we're located). The roads leading to them are in extremely bad shape.

[Edited on 5-30-2007 by flyfishinPam]

Thanks for the update, never a dull moment, eh?

YOU ARE SO RIGHT!!! When I went into the arroyo I had that same thought after returning to the dusty city from your place yesterday. chit, I used to hate driving in Zaragoza and avoided it for about five years but now, town is in worse condition.

I have friends from Mulege who went to Loreto for shopping. They parked along the main street and behind them, where the orange cones were, was the street construction in progress (oxymarooon?).

When they returned to the car, the cones were moved around it and placed up ahead several car lengths. The car was now sitting on an island, as the construction had dug out the street deeply around it.

The exclamation, "What the f*** " must have been heard for blocks.

Pot Holes!!! Saw one in Kalispell, Montana that would qualify for a wildlife refuge.

Quote:

Originally posted by Cypress Pot Holes!!! Saw one in Kalispell, Montana that would qualify for a wildlife refuge.

Oh, great. I was about to post that I'm currently in Seattle and wouldn't trade the crazy Loreto street scene for Seattle's streets.

But from here I go to....Kalispell, Montana. Well, good thing I left some flyrods up there to fish those potholes.

Back to Loreto...the constuction has sure put traffic on our little unpaved street. It's wide, no construction, has no topes, and you can zoom down it fast, in a big cloud of dust.

Progress. Loreto, it's a boom town. Mejor y differente.

Finish Street...

Loreto street engineering at it's best over on Calle Heroes de Independencia...

They really should straighten up that highway sign. Then they could put a windmill on top of it.

In the meantime you need to put a "Private Parking, Loreto Bay Guests Only" sign on it.

Too bad they're wasting water keeping the dust down. Perhaps LB can pipe in some sustainable sewer water for that.

But, after you get through town, you have this waiting for you. What could be better? This is authentic mexico, verdad? There's more of real Loreto living at http://www.artedeloreto.com/

[Edited on 5-31-2007 by oldhippie]

roads

Puente Zarragosa

Arroyo Zarragosa, just south of Loreto. Deck is poured, looks like only weeks away from use. Went in very fast for a public works project — anywhere.

I'm planning to come to Loreto for some fishing in late July or August. What are the chances that the road work will be in somewhat better shape by then -- or could it be worse. It would sure be to nice to have tar or asphalt on top rather than mud, dust, rocks, and sinkholes.