PASO MORELOS, Mexico — Slumped against his tollbooth on Mexico's Highway of the Sun, Isaias Arroyo leisurely ticks off the virtues of this Cadillac of Latin American roads--a billion-dollar freeway linking Acapulco to the outskirts of Mexico City.
There's the gently curving pavement that permits cars to rocket through the desert scrubland at 70 mph. Four-lane swaths blasted through pink, rock-ribbed mountains to save time. Iron bridges so elegant they seem to be taking flight.
The only thing missing is traffic.
"We're alone out here," admits the young toll taker, turning to scan the cloudless horizon for drivers on the lonely road to Acapulco.
Impressive though it is, the stunning, 165-mile concrete ribbon is getting attention for the wrong reason: It has become a much-ridiculed illustration of how a reputed breakthrough for developing countries can turn into a financial disaster.
Initially, it seemed to represent a model idea for cash-strapped governments: Allow private companies to build the highways, and let them charge tolls. In one of the world's most ambitious such programs, Mexico has built more than 3,000 miles of modern roads, stretching from Tijuana to the Yucatan.
But woeful miscalculations pushed the Mexican tolls to Rolls-Royce levels. For the three-hour, one-way trip from the outskirts of Mexico City to Acapulco, cars paid an eye-popping $70. For 18-wheelers, the toll soared to $630--the better part of a year's salary for a minimum-wage worker.
Now, a red-faced government is embarked on a $2-billion bailout of the roads. And as countries from Poland to Colombia launch their own private toll-road projects, the Mexican experience has become a case study in what not to do.
Mexicans "paid a certain price for being innovators. They taught people some mistakes not to make," said Jose Gomez Ibanez, a Harvard University professor who has studied the roads.
But despite the rocky experience, he insists, "toll financing makes sense for these [developing] countries, because there's so much else competing . . . for these scarce tax dollars. These projects are getting done more than they would through other devices."
Toll roads have existed in this hemisphere since the early days of U.S. independence. But the idea of having private companies build them, instead of governments, took off in developing countries only in the last few years, as privatization became a mantra of reform-minded leaders.
