Federal Highway 95D is a
toll highway
A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or '' toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemente ...
connecting
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
to
Acapulco
Acapulco de Juárez (), commonly called Acapulco ( , also , nah, Acapolco), is a city and major seaport in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, south of Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semicircular bay and has bee ...
,
Guerrero
Guerrero is one of the 32 states that comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 81 municipalities and its capital city is Chilpancingo and its largest city is Acapulcocopied from article, GuerreroAs of 2020, Guerrero the pop ...
. Highway 95D is among the most important toll roads in the country, serving as a backbone for traffic out of Mexico City toward
Morelos
Morelos (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Morelos ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Morelos), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 36 municipalities and its capital city is Cuer ...
and tourist destinations in Guerrero.
Three segments, from north to south, comprise Federal Highway 95: the segment between Mexico City and
Cuernavaca
Cuernavaca (; nci-IPA, Cuauhnāhuac, kʷawˈnaːwak "near the woods", ) is the capital and largest city of the state of Morelos in Mexico. The city is located around a 90-minute drive south of Mexico City using the Federal Highway 95D.
The na ...
, the segment from Cuernavaca to Acapulco (commonly known as the Autopista del Sol or Sun Highway), and the Maxitúnel Interurbano Acapulco, separated from the other two segments and offering a bypass under local traffic in Acapulco.
México–Cuernavaca
The first and oldest segment of Highway 95D is that running between Mexico City and Cuernavaca, which was the second toll road in the country.
The original construction of the highway was performed by Compañía Constructora del Sur, S.A. de C.V., a state-controlled predecessor to
Caminos y Puentes Federales
Caminos y Puentes Federales de Ingresos y Servicios Conexos (''Federal Roads and Bridges and Related Services'', CAPUFE) is a federal government agency of Mexico that operates and maintains federally owned roads and bridges. It is part of the Sec ...
, the government agency that maintains the México–Cuernavaca highway as well as the Autopista del Sol and other toll roads and bridges in Mexico.
Users have the option of entering Highway 95D from its Mexico City terminus two ways. The first is by entering from the intersection of Viaducto Tlalpan and Avenida Insurgentes, the latter of which carries
Mexican Federal Highway 95. The other is by taking the Second Story Interconnection (''Interconexión Segundo Piso''), which is a direct flyover from the
Autopista Urbana Sur following Viaducto Tlalpan and the Highway 95D route as it hugs the side of the
Heroico Colegio Militar
The Heroic Military College (officially in es, Heroico Colegio Militar) is the major military educational institution in Mexico. It was founded in 1823 and located in the former Palace of the Inquisition in Mexico City. Initially designated as t ...
. Users of both options pay a 74-peso toll
[CAPUFE – Tarifas Vigentes](_blank)
as of January 31, 2017 for the Tlalpan toll booth, which is designated toll booth number one by
Caminos y Puentes Federales
Caminos y Puentes Federales de Ingresos y Servicios Conexos (''Federal Roads and Bridges and Related Services'', CAPUFE) is a federal government agency of Mexico that operates and maintains federally owned roads and bridges. It is part of the Sec ...
and was expanded in 2016 to add seven additional toll lanes;
the interconnection costs an additional 19 pesos, four for the segment operated by the government of Mexico City and another 15 for the federal segment. After the toll booth, the interconnection ends and users merge into the mainline of the highway heading south.
Highway 95D then exits the Mexico City urban area and begins to scale the mountainous terrain separating Mexico City from Cuernavaca with a maximum altitude of 2647 meters above sea level. As it heads south, it passes a rest stop at Parres, a small town within Mexico City limits, with amenities such as a
Federal Police
A law enforcement agency (LEA) is any government agency responsible for the enforcement of the laws.
Jurisdiction
LEAs which have their ability to apply their powers restricted in some way are said to operate within a jurisdiction.
LEAs ...
booth, restaurants and convenience stores.
At kilometer 47, the road passes into Morelos, arriving in Tres Marías later after a rest stop at Covadonga. The road turns east and then makes a hairpin curve dubbed ''La Pera'' (The Pear), bending for the southwest and toward Cuernavaca. As Tres Marías has a large motorcycling community, the highway in this area is sometimes used as a motorcycle race track, with fatal consequences for those who fall off at the curve. Shortly after La Pera, Highway 95D spawns another toll road connecting to
Tepoztlán
Tepoztlán () is a town in the central Mexican state of Morelos. It is located at in the heart of the Tepoztlán Valley. The town serves as the seat of government for the municipality of the same name. The town had a population of 14,130 inhabit ...
and
Cuautla,
Mexican Federal Highway 115D
MFederal Highway 115D is a toll highway primarily located in the State of Mexico. It serves as a bypass of the cities of Amecameca and Nepantla in the State of Mexico for traffic traveling Mexican Federal Highway 115. The road is operated by Cami ...
.
Highway 95D enters the Cuernavaca metropolitan area east of the campus of the
Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos
The Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos (Autonomous University of the State of Morelos, UAEM) is a university in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. It is the largest institution of higher education in Morelos, with facilities statewide.
Histo ...
, with interchanges at the Glorieta La Paloma de la Paz monument, Avenida Vicente Guerrero, and Avenida Río Mayo near the Plaza Diana shopping center as it wraps east around the Cuernavaca metropolitan area; its interchange with the local street Plan de Ayala marks the end of
Mexican Federal Highway 160
Federal Highway 160 (''Carretera Federal 160'') is a Federal Highway of Mexico. The highway travels from Cuernavaca, Morelos in the west to Izúcar de Matamoros
Izúcar de Matamoros is a city in Izúcar de Matamoros Municipality located in the ...
. This portion contains two express lanes in each direction, known as the Paso Express Cuernavaca; while the project was scheduled to be completed in December 2016, it was delayed four months because of issues stemming from the relocation of utilities and damage to nearby homes,
and the road opened to traffic on April 1, 2017. Upon its completion, travel times through Cuernavaca decreased from 30 minutes to just 10, according to the SCT.
Just three months after opening, a section of the road, swallowing a car and claiming two lives; the SCT blamed erosion and a sewer backed up with trash and water from recent rains.
Cuernavaca–Acapulco
![Z](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Z.A._de_Cuetlajuchitl%C3%A1n.JPG)
On the south edge of Cuernavaca, Highway 95D and Highway 95 begin to parallel each other past communities such as
Temixco
Temixco is the fourth-largest city in the Mexican state of Morelos. It stands at in the west-northwest part of the state.
The city serves as the municipal seat for the surrounding municipality, with which it shares a name. The municipality rep ...
. Travelers encounter the first toll booth of the Cuernavaca–Acapulco highway, commonly known as the ''Autopista del Sol'' (Sun Highway), at the exit to Emiliano Zapata, where incoming and exiting traffic are tolled in a new booth put into service in July 2016. The next interchange is the Highway to the
Cuernavaca Airport, located near the
ITESM Campus Cuernavaca in Xochitepec.
After a brief jog southwest punctuated by an interchange with Morelos State Route 21 at Xoxocotla, travelers on the mainline of the Autopista del Sol are tolled for the first time at the Alpuyeca toll booth, later named for Ing. Francisco Velasco Durán; the road bends around Tequesquitengo Lake and features an interchange with Morelos State Route 5 to provide access to the town of the same name, crossing into Guerrero east of Coaxitlán, Morelos. The terrain around the highway becomes increasingly rugged in Guerrero, which features five bridges for Highway 95D. The first of these is the Puente Quetzalapa, which crosses over a dip in the mountains. The first interchange in Guerrero, however, does not come until after the bridge and after entering the state,
[Datos Viales – Guerrero](_blank)
SCT, 2016 at
Paso Morelos and Guerrero State Route 1.
![Mezcala Bridge - Mexico edit1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/Mezcala_Bridge_-_Mexico_edit1.jpg)
As construction of the highway proceeded in 1991, an archeological site,
Cuetlajuchitlán
Cuetlajuchitlán is a Mesoamerican archaeological site located 3 kilometers southeast of Paso Morelos, in the northeast of the Mexican state of Guerrero.
It was discovered in 1991 during construction work for Mexican Federal Highway 95D, the highw ...
, was discovered, with settlement dating back to 800 BC; the highway travels the
Los Querendes Tunnel under the site at a depth of , allowing for its preservation. At kilometer 212, the
Mezcala Bridge
The Mezcala Bridge (also known as the Mezcala-Solidaridad Bridge), is a cable-stayed bridge located in the state of Guerrero on Highway 95D in Mexico. It spans the Balsas River (known locally as the Mezcala River) close to the western Pacific coa ...
carries Highway 95D over the
Mezcala River
The Balsas River (Spanish Río Balsas, also locally known as the Mezcala River, or Atoyac River) is a major river of south-central Mexico.
The basin flows through the states of Guerrero, México, Morelos, and Puebla. Downstream of Ciudad Al ...
; when it opened with the highway, it was the
world's tallest bridge. The Autopista del Sol route includes a total of five bridges.
![Chilpancingo - Desde la Autopista del Sol](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Chilpancingo_-_Desde_la_Autopista_del_Sol.JPG)
As the road nears Chilpancingo, it comes across a full-access interchange with Highway 95 and
Highway 93D, which offer free access to
Zumpango del Río
Zumpango del Río is the capital of Eduardo Neri Municipality, within the state of Guerrero, in central−western Mexico.
The Spanish discovered silver lodes here in 1531, and started commercial silver mining in the area. Francisco de Hoyos an ...
and a tolled bypass to
Tixtla
Tixtla (formally, Tixtla de Guerrero ) is a town and seat of the Tixtla de Guerrero Municipality in the Mexican state of Guerrero.
The name is Nahuatl, and means either "maize dough" ''(masa) ''from ''textli;'' "our valley" from ''to ixtla;'' ...
, respectively; at this interchange, the Dr. Raymundo Abarca Alarcón General Hospital is located, providing medical services in the Chilpancingo area. The Autopista del Sol then cuts south and southeast through the Chilpancingo urban area, passing the campus of the
Autonomous University of Guerrero
The Autonomous University of Guerrero (''Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero'' or UAGro) is a public and autonomous institution of secondary education and higher education in the Mexican state of Guerrero. Its main campus is in Chilpancingo, with fa ...
and the offices of the Congress of Guerrero. A set of frontage roads, known as Av. Vicente Guerrero, provides interchanges at local streets, with traffic on free Highway 95 and tolled Highway 95D sharing the route. The two roads split off again in southern Chilpancingo. South of town, travelers encounter the Palo Blanco toll booth, the first in 111 kilometers on the road; continuing toward Acapulco, the highway passes the Guerrero Industrial Park before meeting another interchange at Tierra Colorada, crossing its final bridge, over the , and one more tunnel before turning southwest toward Acapulco. One last toll booth awaits motorists at La Venta, immediately followed by an interchange with Guerrero State Route 200D, the tolled Viaducto Diamante, which connects travelers to the Playa Diamante area southeast of the main city. Soon after, Highway 95 merges into Highway 95D, ending the Autopista del Sol on the northeast edge of Acapulco. Motorists who travel the length of the entire road pay a toll of 324 pesos as of January 2017.
History
Construction of the Autopista del Sol was completed in 1993. The road, initially slated to cost 800 million pesos, ended up costing 2.2 billion, primarily because of the Puente Mezcala, which was designed in conjunction with a dam that was never built.
In 2007, Gutsa, a contractor selected to maintain and rehabilitate a 60-kilometer stretch of the highway, failed to meet its contractual obligations, which resulted in the contract being terminated and the SCT taking control of the road improvements.
Maxitúnel Interurbano Acapulco
The Maxitúnel, also signed Highway 95D, opened November 26, 1996 after construction began in 1994. The tunnel is long and was designed to reduce the travel time from Acapulco to Mexico City by 25 minutes, allowing motorists to avoid local traffic. It was built by a consortium of Grupo Mexicano de Desarrollo,
Empresas ICA
Empresas ICA is a construction company that was founded on 4 July 1947, by Mexican civil engineer Bernardo Quintana Arrioja. The company has built multiple landmarks, buildings, and facilities in Mexico, including the Estadio Azteca, the moder ...
(Ingenieros Civiles Asociados), and Triturados Basálticos y Derivados.
The most recent toll for the tunnel, effective as of January 15, 2016, is 101 pesos for non-residents and 37 pesos for residents.
In 2013, the state government called on the tunnel's operator, the Autovía division of ICA, to temporarily not charge vehicles on the road after
Hurricane Ingrid and
Hurricane Manuel
Hurricane Manuel () brought widespread flooding across much of Mexico in September 2013, in conjunction with Hurricane Ingrid. The fifteenth named storm and seventh hurricane of the annual hurricane season, Manuel originated from a strong a ...
struck the region and stranded tourists.
References
{{Mexican Federal Highways
Mexican Federal Highways