The President of Guatemala, Luis Berger, the Minister of Communications, Infrastructure and Housing, Francisco Unda, and the mayors of the area, inaugurated the work of renovating and improving national road 12 in the town of Tacaná on 20 July. The work is located 271 km west of Guatamala City and is considered the highest road in central America, reaching an altitude of 3,500 metres at its highest point.

The work was carried out by FCC Construcción and involved an investment of over $19 million, financed by the World Bank and the national budget. The work started in October 2005 and ended in June 2007.

The project involved renovating and improving 67 km running through various towns such as Tejutla, San Sebastián, Ixchiguán, Tacaná and Tectitán and over 100 smaller villages. The work will benefit over 350,000 inhabitants, notably improving their financial, educational and health conditions.

The project included enlarging five small bridges and building the bridge over the River Coatán using 42 metre girders built on site. The cross-section is that of a rural road 6.5 metres wide. It involved laying over 45,000 tonnes of hot asphalt mix and over 100,000 tonnes of crushed gravel for the lower layers of the road. Because of conditions in the area, part of the asphalt surface layer was made using bitumen modified with polymers to improve its handling and durability, the first time this technique has been used on roads in Guatemala. Some 12 km of existing road was also recovered and environmental protection work included the seeding of over 6,000 trees of local species.