The Xochi Project, which builds a 31 -kilometer release on the Guatemalan southern coast, includes an industrial city of 200 hectares in Santo Domingo, Suchitepéquez, with a model that will integrate residences, commerce and industrial parks.
The information was confirmed by Carlos Colom, president of the Board of Directors of the Project, the Guatemala team does not stop for free press and Guatevisión, who traveled to the place to report the progress of the work.
The idea is to turn that area into a mixed real estate complex that includes manufacturing industry, logistics, housing, education, health, offices, recreation and entertainment, adds the Executive.
The first phase will cover about 16 % of the entire Xochi city area and will begin its development during the first quarter of 2026 with the installation of convenience stores, the establishment of premises that provide automotive and agro -industrial services and the construction of an industrial block.
.
Xochi City: Powerful industrial capital
“We are trying to attract large -scale industry from the foreigner with the Nearshoring phenomenon to be installed in Ciudad Xochi and generate better quality jobs. We work with one of Guatemala’s largest universities to establish an important campus, where people in the area can study and train, ”adds Colom.
Jorge Benavides, an analyst at Fundesa, emphasizes that this area of the country has about half a million inhabitants, which “allows enough workforce to be achieved, for example, in manufacturing, as in the case of car harnesses and automobile industry. There are intentions a manufacturing company of Autmóviles Arnes to open a new plant in that area. ” He adds that there is a potential to boost the textile and food industry.
This city will have a connection with the Urban Centers of Retalhuleu (at 45 km), cocales (35 km), Xela (60 km) and Guatemala City (130 km).
As part of the National Competitiveness Policy, this pole is defined as one of the main intermediate cities in the south, which covers from Mazatenango to Coatepeque, with greater concentration in Retalhuleu.
For Benavides, the development of this intermediate city can be a bridge to attract more productive investment and improve port access to the Pacific, the border with Mexico and the connection with the Central-South corridor, which links the department of Guatemala with the port in Escuintla.
With this new productive area in the south, it arises “the possibility that people who are already being formed in professional and technical areas in the area have a place to work labor and obtain greater income. Then, that natural internal mobility would then contribute to the reduction of irregular migration to the north, ”adds Benavides.
Libramiento in traffic area
Xochi, or the flower corridor, is a highly anticipated route by travelers and transporters who must currently travel through the CA-2, from km 172 to 142, through the municipalities of Cuyenango, Mazatenango, San Bernardino and San Antonio, a journey that can take between two and four hours or more. With this toll route, that time could be reduced to 30 minutes, according to the company’s projections.
The road will have 23 bridges, 18 vaults, four overpasses, more than 20 large drain boxes and more than three million cubic meters of material. For its construction, 12 companies prequalified, nine presented offers and the 23 bridges were distributed among five companies, which built them in parallel.
“The road was also tendered and awarded to a company that has worked with many subcontractors. In addition, there is a package of complementary works that include drains, administrative buildings, toll garitas, intelligent information and signaling systems. To do this, we made another tender and the companies that presented the most competitive offer were awarded in terms of price and quality, ”explains Colom.
In the project more than 15 contractors have worked in parallel, with around 1,600 direct jobs and double or triple in indirect jobs. To date, there are 18 finished bridges and five under construction. As for progress, Colom estimates that “the road now is 65 or 70 %.”
According to the projections of the Xochi project, three out of 10 vehicles will use this alternate route, while seven out of 10 will continue to travel through the CA-2. That 30 % that uses the release must pay tolls, whose rate is not yet defined.
Although there is no established amount, the Guatemalan Chamber of Transportation and Load raises the use of this alternate route. At the discretion of José Alejandro Ramírez, executive director of that entity, “the cost of toll is paid well because it is good for us to the operation. The same is going to pay or spend being in tail and here we will pay it in a toll that will allow us to move quickly. ”
Currently, due to slow traffic, 20 % is estimated in cost overruns and inefficiency greater than 30 %.
Colom points out that “these are only 31 km of the more than 2,000 km that Guatemala needs per year. We hope that in October 2025 or the end of this year the project may be operating in record time. ” He adds that “the challenge is to finish building the road, make the fillings, build the subbase, the black base and the rolling folder”, that is, the final surface where the vehicles will circulate.
For Gian Franco Carassale, Director of Infrastructure and Energy for Central America, Caribbean and Mexico (AI) of IDB Invest, Unit of the Inter -American Development Bank, the progress of the project is in the construction phase of the embankments. “This construction has been carried out taking into account the productive areas that are on the sides of the road. Therefore, it was necessary to build overlapping steps to allow harvest load trucks, ”explains the director.
Carassale estimates that at the beginning of next year the road should be in operation. “We hope that construction is in operation at the beginning of the second quarter of next year. The concrete date will depend on the progress during the rainy season, which is about to begin in a couple of months, ”he adds.
Via Right: 200 years in 8 years
To start the construction, the Xochi team acquired the lands where the works advance. With more than 200 negotiations held for approximately eight years, they managed to place the first stone in September 2023.
The first step was to establish the right of way, an issue in which, according to Colom, “Guatemala is a complicated country.” He adds: “They were long and complex negotiations, we conclude it and that is why we are building the road. The challenge there is that one does not have 99 % of the right of track … it must have 100 %. ”
Another challenges for the start of the project were the permits before different government entities, licenses and municipal procedures. “Guatemala, if you want to generate more investments and infrastructure projects, such as developments of all kinds, ports, airports and roads, the entire permissions process must make more efficient. While our experience has been good, we believe that speed must be greater. ” In addition, technical discussions with the Ministry of Communications, Infrastructure and Housing, at Colom’s discretion, took “quite a time, but it was a very professional process.” He adds that it was considered how “this project could be designed in a way that complement the national road network. They were long discussions and prolonged processes to evaluate design A, design B, how to interconnect and what documents give us the certainty that these interconnections with the national network are solid. ”
A new works model
Currently, in Guatemala there is “one meter of road per inhabitant, when we should have at least three,” says Colom. Therefore, it considers that for the State it is essential to change the construction model to increase the amount of kilometers built a year. “I think that an important step and on the correct route is to modernize the law of public-private alliances. Another option is the priority road infrastructure law; I think projects can be developed through the State with a new model, ”he explains.
Although this project proposes to reduce the transfer time in a 31 -kilometer section, it is still necessary to build other roads that complement it. “What we need is that the connection with the rest of the roads and ports does not become a funnel, because here we are going to be very fast, but we will find other roads and another logistics axis where you will form again two or three days,” says Ramírez.
The Guatemalan Transport and Load Chamber considers that roads away from urban areas must be built to avoid mobility restrictions and problems passing through commercial areas and populations. Ramírez points out that “in the absence of the great projects of the State, this (Xochi) becomes a solution.”
Find more than Guatemala does not stop In our video channels of Free press and Guatevisión, A alliance content focused on journalism of solutions.