El Salvador is making significant strides in urban safety as the Ministry of Public Works reports a 60 percent completion rate on a vital drainage project in San Salvador’s Zona Rosa. Minister Romeo Rodríguez Herrera supervised the placement of concrete slabs today at the Sergio Vieira de Mello Boulevard site, noting that this level of progress was achieved in just thirty days. The intervention, valued at $3 million, is designed to eliminate the chronic flooding that has historically damaged vehicles and disrupted transit in the San Benito area.
Central to this project is the construction of a massive underground detention cistern stretching approximately 180 meters in length. This infrastructure will have the capacity to capture 1,000 cubic meters of rainwater, effectively managing runoff during heavy storms. Today we are placing 24 slabs in this sector; the work is a cistern box that will capture rainwater, retain it underground, and gradually drain it through the existing system, explained Minister Herrera during his inspection near the Bambú City Center.
The project utilizes advanced pre-engineered components to accelerate the timeline, including prefabricated wells that connect the main cistern to a 42-inch piping network. This modern approach has allowed the ministry to stay well ahead of its original 120-day schedule. We started the work the first week of last month, and today we already have 60 percent progress. It is very likely that by the end of this month the project will be finished, the Minister stated, adding that he expects traffic to be fully restored by May.
This high-speed intervention is part of a broader National Mitigation Plan aimed at protecting residents and commuters throughout the capital. Beyond the Zona Rosa site, the government is preparing for four additional large-scale projects totaling an $80 million investment. These upcoming works include two lamination lagoons in the San Salvador Metropolitan Area, supported by funding from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), to further bolster the city’s resilience against climate risks.
By prioritizing rapid execution and strategic engineering, the administration of President Nayib Bukele seeks to provide immediate relief to those living and working in the country’s most active commercial districts. The water that normally accumulated in this sector will go directly to the detention lagoon we are building, Herrera noted. As workers prepare to lay the final asphalt layer, the project stands as a testament to the efficient modernization of Salvadoran infrastructure.