Carretera Central (Puerto Rico)

Route description

The highway runs from the north coast city of San Juan to the south coast city of Ponce via Rio Piedras, Caguas, Cayey, Aibonito, Coamo, and Juana Diaz. The highway corridor is now signed as Puerto Rico Highway 14 from Ponce to Cayey, and as Puerto Rico Highway 1 from Cayey to San Juan.

History

In the 1820s, the Spanish colonial government in Puerto Rico, under the direction of Governor Miguel de la Torre took the first steps for building a highway connecting the towns of San Juan and Rio Piedras and incorporating temporary wooden bridges for river crossings.

During the 1830s an unpaved wagon road was built linking Ponce, Juana Diaz and Coamo to satisfy the commercial sugar production needs of that area. In 1846 a new masonry bridge was built by Spanish engineer Santiago Cortijo to connect the capital city island of San Juan with the rest of the Puerto Rico mainland. Meanwhile construction of a 41-kilometer macadam highway between San Juan and Caguas, designed by Colonel engineer Diego Galvez, was begun. Construction of the San Juan-Caguas span was first under the direction of Colonel Tulio O'Neill and was later completed, in 1853, under Commander Santiago Cortijo. After the completion of the bridge over the Rio Piedras river in 1853, the construction project completed bridges over Quebrada Frailes in 1855, the Concepcion bridge over Caguas's Rio Cañas in 1856, and the bridge over the Caguas's Cagüitas River in 1857.

In 1858 Puerto Rican civil engineer Timoteo Luberza designed the paved highway between Coamo, at the southern foothills of Cordillera Central, and Juana Diaz, its first neighboring town due southwest, for the municipality of Coamo. Three years later, by 1861, a fair portion of this highway had already been completed.

The most challenging segment of Carretera Central, the one involving the mountainous segment between Caguas in the north and Coamo in the south, was built under the 1859 General Highway Plan, a complete highway plan to connect the coastal town with those in the mountainous interior. The plan was approved by the Spanish Crown in 1860 and it included the creation of "first order" and "second order" highways. In 1860, the central government commissioned engineer Niceto Blajot to design the paved version of Carretera Central between Ponce and Juana Diaz, which until then was a dirt and gravel road.

The then-municipal highways connecting Ponce, Juana Diaz and Coamo were made part of the state-run Carretera Central between 1875 and 1880. Meanwhile the first stretch of road built exclusively under the Delegation of Public Works (equivalent to a department of public works) was the northern mountainside segment between Caguas and Cayey. This segment was started in 1875 and completed in 1881 under the direction of site engineers Raimundo Camprubi and Enrique Gadea-Giraldez. It was designed by engineer Manuel Lopez-Bayo.

On the southern mountainside of Cordillera Central, the stretch from Coamo to Aibonito was designed by Timoteo Luberza in 1861. Construction started in 1874 under Ricardo Campubri. It included 7.5 kilometers of the steep Asomante slopes, and was completed in 1881. The width of the road in this stretch was reduced from 6.5 meters to 6.0 meters, to reduce costs associated with building in such steep terrain. The segment between Aibonito and Cayey was designed by Manuel Lope-Bayo, begun in 1879 and completed in 1886. It included bridges over Quebrada Honda and Quebrada Toita. As in the Coamo to Aibonito stretch, the stretch from Aibonito to Cayey has a width of 6.0 meters instead of 6.5 meters. The stretch was so treacherous that it was the last to be completed and the most expensive. It soon acquired the popular name La Piquiña.

Functional by 1886, Carretera Central was the first highway to cross Puerto Rico's east–west mountain range, the Cordillera Central. In 1886, it was a 134-kilometer (83 mi) route with 13 permanent bridges and 33 "casillas de camineros" (housing for road maintenance technicians).

The Arenas Bridge, constructed in 1894 to bring the Carretera Central across the Rio de la Plata, was the longest bridge constructed in Puerto Rico under Spanish government.

The road, spanning the entire length between San Juan and Ponce, was fully completed in 1898 and christened Carretera Central.

Other facts

In 1898, during the Spanish–American War, American forces moved from south to north over the Carretara Central. One bridge was demolished by the Spanish to delay the American advance.