The mega project of the Puerto Peñasco homeport, which is expected to boost new tourism markets to the region in being the only cruise ship homeport in the Sea of Cortez – and the first in Mexico – via the investment of 600 million pesos, is going through a critical moment following a lack of agreements between the construction company hired to do the job and local transportation groups that haul rock to the site, along with other situations that have paralyzed work on the project since May 10th.
The present situation has caused discontent on behalf of municipal authorities and among representative from both social and business sectors who consider unity and agreement should prevail given a project of this magnitude, both for the benefit of what it represents for the region as well as Puerto Peñasco itself.
So stated Puerto Peñasco Mayor Gerardo Figueroa Zazueta, who emphasized the need to care for important projects in the port and balance what is won and what may be lost due to confrontations.
“We must ensure that projects as important as the homeport do not get stuck, we need to balance what this represents for Puerto Peñasco, there is a need to work and I trust an agreement will be reached,” stated Figueroa.
The work stoppage on behalf of those transporting rock for the homeport breakwater arose after claims the “haulers” had not been paid for quite some time by the company who had hired them. The situation led to the intervention of State police forces on June 6th , sent in to halt a road blockage set up by workers outside the homeport. This occurred while negotiations were still going on.
Though there are various versions concerning the situation leading up to the work stoppage, it appears this problem arose due to a lack of control in the transporting of rock as well as exceeding the budget outlined for this part of the work.
“[The homeport] is an opportunity for Peñasco, for the future impact it may have. I hope things reach a happy ending,” indicated project contractor Alfredo Vergara.
In an interview held much earlier with Javier Tapia Camou, State Coordinator for the Tourism Promotion Commission, he indicated there will be arduous work on the project in order to recover time lost due to, first, awaiting explosive permits to get rock from Cerro Prieto, as well as reorganization of work in order to pull out the larger rocks required by the project. Goals still remain to complete the project by late 2015.