Caracas-La Guaira highway
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The Caracas-La Guaira highway is a freeway that connects Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, to the port city of La Guaira. It is the primary route between Caracas and the coast, including the main international airport, Simón Bolívar International Airport. The highway opened in 1953 as a toll road. With three viaducts and two tunnels along its route, the 20-mile highway replaced two tortuous two-lane roads through the mountains and reduced the trip between its endpoints from several hours to half an hour.
One of the viaducts along the route, known as Viaduct #1, was plagued by gradual landslides from the 1980s onward. The bases of the supports shifted toward the center of the span, causing the supports to crack and the span to buckle upward. Venezuelan governments made constant repairs to strengthen the supports and stabilize the span, but did not develop a long-term solution. The government closed the highway as a safety precaution on January 5, 2006. The sudden isolation of Caracas from the coast prompted political accusations by the opposition against Hugo Chávez's government, and by Chávez supporters against previous governments' failure to deal with the problem. A narrow and steep detour around the viaduct opened on February 28, and the viaduct span fell on March 19. Construction began later that year on a replacement viaduct, which opened on June 21, 2007.
