Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes

Sonora's Highway 15 stretches from the U.S.-Mexico border in Nogales to the border with the Mexican state of Sinaloa at Estación Don.

A long-delayed but nearly complete highway project in neighboring Sonora could actually be finished next year.

Disputes with contractors and cancelled contracts are some of the key issues at play with the delayed finishing of the project, which stretches from the border in Nogales all the way to Sonora’s frontier with Sinaloa. That’s according to information released by the Mexican government after the local outlet El Imparcial asked the country’s president about the project’s status.

The Ministry of Communication and Transportation said that finishing the project would cost an additional approximately $25 million, and that it could be done by the second half of 2022.

In response to previous records requests from KJZZ, the ministry also cited tensions with the indigenous Yaqui people as a source of delay, and provided a list of a number of contractors fined millions of pesos for breach of contract.