On May 25, 2015, Inti Gopar and I traveled from the Colotepec river bridge to San Sebastian - a distance of around 40 km on the new highway. We could have gone further except for exhaustion and motion sickness. The headquarters for the entire project is now in Ejutla, but there are also offices in San Antonio Lalana. First time I ever went to Lalana the trip took 5 hours — no highway, just normal roads through the mountains. It now takes the ICA buses 75 minutes via the highway. It took us closer to two hours because we drove slowly, stopping to take photos, and we also took what turned out to be an unnecessary detour. We traveled by jeep. No problem with access because the workers and engineers know us.
What I learned in Lalana: there are now 1,200 ICA workers on the project (not including the union truck drivers and other contract workers) and 350 engineers, technicians and administrators. This is down from 2,000 ICA workers and almost 400 ICA engineers, technicians and administrators in February. This reflects a systemic cut back in ICA projects in general. (The company suffered a $55 million dollar loss during the first quarter of 2015.) Nonetheless, we saw people working on more areas of the project than ever before. Yet we also noted the absence of some of the heavy machinery we had seen before.
We counted 15 km of finished highway (with asphalt) in the 25 km stretch north of the Colotepec bridge. Last year we observed that almost the entire 10 km from Ventanilla to Colotpec was paved as was the 10 km from Ejutla (Barranca Larga) to San Vicente. So I think it is fair to say that around 45 km of the 104 km highway is now paved. We did 50 miles per hour easily on the paved sections.
Between the 3-lane paved sections the road is just one lane. In some areas it hugs the side of the mountain in hair-raising curves. There were other areas with warning signs for rock slides and we weren’t wearing hard hats!
The 2.3 km Santa Martha tunnel is almost finished. People at the site said only 46 meters remained to be excavated. It would have been completed earlier but there had been a shortage of "material". (I think that means machinery.)
The best news is that the 6 km in the middle of the highway where no construction had been permitted because of the conflict between the Bienes Comunales of San Sebastian and San Francisco is now open and construction is happening there, at least for the time being. The conflict still has not been resolved but the parties have agreed to let construction go on, for the time being.
The "official" completion date now is June, 2016. I suspect that that is code for in another two years. There is still dynamiting and rock studies to be done, especially in the 6 km conflict zone and three more tunnels and various bridges.
Despite media reports, Grupo Carso is not working on the project. It's all ICA. Apparently the confusion was caused because ICA contracted some machinery from Grupo Carso.
In these conditions, air flow through the airways is chronically obstructed. In other words, air is unable to properly enter your lungs. Thus, you may face trouble in breathing and experience excess cough accompanied with mucus. Usually, this condition is permanent and it may even progress over time.
It is important to understand that normal asthma blocks air out of your lungs. But, this obstruction of air is reversible until asthma turns chronic. Air flow to your lungs is normal between attacks of asthma. Hence, these patients don’t have Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
However, if asthma is left untreated, you may develop chronic inflammation associated with this condition. Soon, airways to your lungs may be permanently obstructed. Since such patients don’t have normal airflow between asthma attacks, they are considered to have Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
Symptoms of COPD are related to conditions which cause this ailment. Let us tell you about some common symptoms of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
Smoking – On an average, if you have been smoking 20 or more cigarettes per day for the last twenty years, you may develop chronic cough, frequent respiratory infections and shortness of breath. In fact, smoking account for more than 90% cases of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
Emphysema – In patients suffering from emphysema, shortness of breath is a very common symptom. Shortness of breath is more noticeable during strenuous physical activity. However, if emphysema is progressing, you may even experience short of breath at rest.
Bronchiectasis and Chronic Bronchitis – If you are suffering from these conditions, sputum production and chronic cough are major symptoms of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Usually, sputum is thick and clear.
You may also experience frequent chest infections. These may cause coughing, fever, shortness of breath, production of discolored sputum and wheezing. Wheezing is a noise produced by your lungs during exhalation. It is caused when your airways are obstructed or lined with mucus. These infections occur frequently as the condition progresses.
Advanced Symptoms – In advanced Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, patients may develop a condition called cyanosis. In this condition, nail beds and lips tend to turn blue. This happens due to lack of oxygen in your blood.
Your body may be unable to remove carbon dioxide from your blood. Thus, you may experience headaches in the morning.
Some patients experience significant weight loss. The main reason is that you will need additional energy to breathe properly. Reduced intake of food may be another possibility.
If you are suffering from advanced Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, small blood vessels in your lungs may be destroyed. This blocks blood flow to your lungs. Therefore, your heart needs to increase force to pump blood properly to your lungs. This elevated pressure on your heart is called hypertension. If your heart is unable to handle the pressure, it may result in Cor Pulmonale or right heart failure. It may also lead to some swelling in ankles and feet.
In an advanced stage, you may also suffer from hemoptysis. In this condition, you cough blood. This condition is caused by damaged to the inner lining of airways and blood vessels. Occasionally, this condition could be the onset of lung cancer.
Commonly, COPD is diagnosed on the basis of your medical history. A proper diagnosis of your medical history provides a lot of information about different symptoms and signs of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary disease. Some other tests may also be performed for a proper diagnosis. These include an X-ray of the chest, computerized tomography or CAT scan of the chest, various tests for lung infection and measurement of oxygen and carbon dioxide in your blood.
COPD is a serious and irreversible condition. Therefore, it should not be taken lightly. With the first signs of this ailment, you should consult your doctor and discuss treatment options to improve quality of life.