The departure of the shipping company Maersk from the port of Conteconwhich is located in the south of Guayaquil, moving its services to the port of Posorja will mean a greater load of traffic from the road to the coast.

This shipping company, which moves a significant amount of containers in Guayaquil, has already announced to its clients that at the beginning of 2024 it will start shipping from the DP World terminal in Posorje parish.

“The detailed transition plan is being refined and adjusted and will be published in due course,” he told his clients.

The transfer of this shipping company will mean an important change for road-to-coast traffic due to the movement of container trailers that will transit, as it is the second company with an important operation in Guayaquil.

The collectives are demanding a lowering of the speed limit on the road towards the coast and increased control after the death of the cyclist

Some estimate that between 45% and 50% of the port’s cargo volume is moved by Maerks, equivalent to more than 300,000 teus (a 20-foot container unit).

A few days ago, the mayor of Guayaquil, Aquiles Alvarez, mentioned the loss of the contract that Contecon had with the shipping company, and that this would involve the movement of more containers along the route to the coast.

He did this when he alluded to the need for a fifth bridge that would relieve roads like Perimetralna.

Although he did not mention Maerks, the mayor indirectly referred to this change of shipping company and the challenge of having more cars in the coastal route area.

“The big problem is coming on the Perimetral and the route to the coast after Contecon lost a big contract with a strong company, now we will have to support more than 500,000 containers on the route to the coast and on the Perimetral, because the fifth bridge is urgently needed,” he said.

Prefect Marcela Aguiñaga announced that she plans to meet with people from DP World this week because, she noted, “they are concerned about access to the road network.” The competent services announced that traffic will be difficult on that entrance road to the city, more precisely on the road towards the coast towards the perimeter.

“We have to work on a new route to enter the province that we don’t have today (…) we will have to solve that, not in the short term but in the medium term because we are not ready to have all that cargo through that route,” he said last Monday the 4th, during a radio interview.

Since November last year, the Municipality has changed the speed limit on the section of the road towards the coast, which went from 90 to 70 km per hour, between Puerto Azul and the toll. This has been applied to a number of accidents that have been reported.

Speed ​​limits have been reduced on the part of the road towards the coast. Photo: Space

This year, there have already been 73 accidents, 63 injuries and 15 deaths in the artery where housing schemes, shopping malls, schools and factories are located.

Alvarez indicated that the road is not fit to be considered a highway, at least not until road solutions are implemented.

The municipality of Guayaquil indicated that by 2024, three pedestrian crossings on that road and a road solution at the height of Puerto Azul are planned.

An alternative route for the new Daular airport project was also analyzed, but that project has been studied for years and is conditioned by the development of the new airport.

The speed limit is reduced on the way to the coast, but the provisions of the Traffic Act are missing to reduce accidents

Residents of the coastal highway began to show concern about the increased heavy vehicle traffic that the coastal highway would receive with heavy vehicle traffic.

“I think that the solutions on the road to the coast should be accelerated in order to avoid more congestion. We have to take into account that there is a section in the urban area that already has a problem in the so-called peak hours,” said one user.

Along the road there are more than 50 urbanizations, municipalities and about 350 communal infrastructures and facilities, churches, parks, shopping centers, restaurants, banks, gas stations and green areas. The population in this sector is around 100,000.

The data

Posorja Terminal receives CMA CGM, Marfret, Evergreen, Cosco Shipping, OOCL and Hapag-Lloyd vessels.