Highways in Colombia

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Colombian geography presents formidable challenges to roadbuilders, who need to integrate its largest production centers deep within the Andes with major ports in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. All of this creates a heavy premium to roadbuilding, compared with the cost of building highways in flat terrain. Therefore, the Colombian government is undertaking a great effort in order to improve the highway system, under the name of Fourth Generation Highways, with the intent of updating major roads to international safety and speed standards. This project will be funded through both public and private capital, with a total worth of nearly US$23 billion, accounting to a yearly investment of 3% of national GDP, improving or building a grand total of over 8.000 km of roads.^[1] These roads are expected to improve Colombia's competitiveness in order to successfully take advantage of the many trade agreements signed in recent years.^[2]

Highway safety in Colombia is enforced by the Highway Police, a unit of the National Police of Colombia. Colombia is crossed by the Pan-American Highway.