Trade and Commercial Law Assessment - Honduras - Economic ...

TRADE AND COMMERCIAL LAW ASSESSMENT DECEMBER 2004
HONDURAS
a. Trade Facilitation
Issues to Address
Honduras should make the following improvements to its roadway system:
♦ Expand roadway capacity and improve levels of service between Tegucigalpa and Puerto
Cortez. This two-lane corridor provides Honduran, El Salvadoran, and Nicaraguan
traders with vehicular access to the region’s most strategically important port facility
along the Caribbean coast. Therefore, it is a critical link and must be designed and
maintained to accommodate high traffic counts on a consistent basis. Today, this corridor
provides marginal service, is inconsistent in its cross-sectional design, and lacks
sufficient capacity in more densely populated areas. In addition, mountainous stretches of
this corridor lack passing-lane capacity along upgrades. Although significant upgrades of
this key corridor are planned, funding for the entire project has not been fully secured.
Full realization of this important project must be made a high priority.
♦ Fully fund the nation’s roadway maintenance program, as identified by law. The nation’s
new roadway maintenance program, Fondo Vial, is funded by user fees collected through
a tax on fuel. Similar maintenance programs within the region have proved to be highly
successful in maintaining a high-quality roadway network. However, Honduras’s user
fee
collection mechanism funnels all funds through the central government, with funds
reallocated to Fondo Vial at the discretion of the Ministry of Finance. As a result, to date,
Fondo Vial has been funded at approximately 50 percent of its planned funding level.
Consequently, maintenance programs are not fully funded, resulting in continued
deterioration of the roadway network. Either the user fee collection mechanism must be
changed to allow Fondo Vial to collect directly or guarantees must be provided at the
Ministry of Finance level.
♦ Develop bypass corridors around major population centers. Honduras’s existing roadway
network provides point-to-point services between municipalities and
production/consumption zones. Consequently, truck traffic must transit local roads en
route to its ultimate destination. This circumstance is most prevalent within the city limits
of Tegucigalpa and, to a lesser extent, in San Pedro Sula. Plans to address this issue
include development of
a Tegucigalpa bypass corridor from Comayagua to the proposed
El Salvador Canal Seco project. This contemplated 100-kilometer stretch of highway will
be a strategically important corridor for Honduras and should be identified as a national
priority. Realization of this project will provide a critical link for Honduras to the
Pacific
coast while rerouting major truck through-traffic around the nation’s densely populated
areas.
♦ Implement safety measures in the nation’s roadway design and operations. Currently,
users include motorized vehicles (trucks, buses, and automobiles), human- and animalpowered
vehicles, and pedestrians. Current roadway cross-section design provides
limited clearance for the passage of the non-motorized-vehicle users, producing an
overall safety hazard. This is both a societal awareness issue and a corridor design issue.
It is recommended that a national campaign to improve highway safety awareness be
implemented. At the same time, future corridor designs should incorporate dedicated
nonmotorized vehicle lanes (i.e., bicycle lanes) in densely
populated areas. Action on
XV-8