The arroyo El Zacatal, which crosses the Transpeninsular Highway just north of San José del Cabo’s town center, flooded twice on September 11 — once in the morning and again in the afternoon — forcing municipal traffic officers to close the crossing and leaving commuters stranded for up to two hours each time. For residents who live or work on the north side of town, the closures are a recurring problem with no permanent fix in sight.
Heavy rain in the foothills above San José triggered the runoff. The arroyo carries not only water but sand, debris and trash from upstream settlements built in high-risk zones. When the flow peaks, traffic police shut down the vado — the paved low-water crossing — because the current can easily sweep away cars and trucks.
Drivers are left waiting, often for hours, on both sides of the highway. Passengers on intercity buses are sometimes dropped off before the crossing and told to walk or find another way around. One bus rider told Tribuna de México her northbound Ruta 3 bus could not complete its route because of the closure, leaving her and other passengers to figure out how to reach work.
Residents Say the Problem Has Grown Worse Over Two Decades
Rosa Delia Delgado, a local resident who regularly commutes across the arroyo, has lived in San José for 20 years and says the situation has only deteriorated. “This problem has existed the whole time, and it gets worse when it rains,” she told El Sudcaliforniano. “It creates chaos and a bigger problem for people who work, because they arrive late or leave late.”
For pedestrians, the problem is even more direct. Many people use the arroyo bed as a shortcut between neighborhoods when it is dry, but when water flows, there is no safe way to cross on foot. Residents have been asking for a bridge or elevated crossing for years.
The arroyo’s location puts it at the center of daily life for colonias including Santa Rosa and San Isidro on the north side, and for anyone traveling between central San José and communities farther up the highway. The lack of an all-weather crossing means a routine afternoon thunderstorm can effectively cut the town in half.
What the Municipality Says
According to data from Mexico’s National Water Commission (Conagua), the El Zacatal arroyo contains three critical flood points. The municipality has not announced a timeline or budget for a bridge, and residents say they have received little information about whether one is being planned. The crossing has been a known infrastructure gap for years, yet no major work has been completed to address it.
The recent closures came as the National Weather Service issued alerts for heavy rain across Baja California Sur. Similar infrastructure repairs have been underway elsewhere in Los Cabos, but El Zacatal remains an unfinished piece of the puzzle.
For now, residents are left hoping the next storm holds off long enough for them to get to work on time — and that officials finally decide a bridge is worth the investment.
