The highway system in Puerto Rico is composed of approximately of roads in Puerto Rico, maintained by the Puerto Rico Department of Transportation and Public Works (Spanish: Departmento de Transportación y Obras Públicas) or DTOP. The highway system in Puerto Rico is divided into four networks: primary, urban primary, secondary or inter-municipal, and tertiary or local (Spanish: red primaria, red primaria urbana, red secundaria o intermunicipal, and red terciaria o local).
In this regard, a primary road is one which is part of the primary network, an urban primary road is part of the urban primary network, etc. Generally, the same highway may change between networks, but the highway will continue to have the same number. For example, PR-1, connecting Ponce and San Juan, is signed as urban primary inside the Ponce city limits, then it is signed as secondary in Ponce's rural barrio Capitanejo, and then it is again signed as urban primary on its entry into the town of Santa Isabel.
Primary roads are numbered 1 through 99, secondary roads are numbered 100 to 299, and tertiary roads are numbered 300 to 9999. In 2009, primary routes comprise about 14% of the total Commonwealth system mileage, secondary about 30%, and tertiary (municipal) about 56% of the total mileage.
|-
| Urban primary roads
| align=center | 40px|alt=A white highway shield with a black numeral 1|Puerto Rico Highway 1 urban primary highway marker
| Complement the primary network inside a metro area (San Juan, Ponce, Mayagüez, Arecibo, Aguadilla, Humacao, Caguas and Guayama)
| Any<br>(1–9999)
|-
| Secondary (or inter-municipal) roads
| align=center | 40px|alt=A blue pentagon-shaped highway marker with a yellow numeral 1|Puerto Rico Highway 1 secondary highway marker
| Provide access to municipalities from primary network roads
| 100–299 all non-tolled numbered highways in Puerto Rico had the same route marker, a square with a white-on-black half-circle with the route number in the bottom two thirds and a map of Puerto Rico with the words Puerto Rico written inside in the top third. A second road marker, used on the road through El Yunque National Forest, is the brown-colored upside-down trapezoidal marker with the road number on the top two-thirds of the sign and the words Bosque Nacional (national forest) on the bottom one-third, as shown.
Roadway maintenance
All Puerto Rico Highway System roads, regardless of the classification used, are maintained by the centralized, Commonwealth-level, Departmento de Transportación y Obras Públicas (DTOP). Municipal governments are not responsible for maintenance of the Puerto Rico Highway System roads within their territory; whether or not the municipal government is an autonomous government, DTOP is the responsible agency. The DTOP maintains a network of regional offices throughout the island which carry out DTOP work within their multi-municipality region. Municipal governments are only responsible for maintenance of city and town streets within their jurisdictions. On occasion, the central government has entered into memoranda of agreement with municipal governments for the collaborative maintenance of some Puerto Rico Highway System roadways within their municipalities.
Municipal roads
In Puerto Rico, the term municipal road may be encountered occasionally. This is not a “fourth” network of State roads. Roadways that have both their terminus within the same municipality are called tertiary roads and are, by convention, numbered PR-300 through PR-9999. Tertiary roads are also sometimes called Carreteras de la red local (English: Local network roads).
However, the term municipal road or municipal highway (Spanish: Carretera municipal) refers to any public roadway that is not marked with a Puerto Rico road marker. Roadways marked with a Puerto Rico road marker are those public roadways that include PR followed by a number in its markers. Such roads are considered State roads and part of the Puerto Rico Highway System. Public roadways that do not include such markings are termed municipal roadways. Unlike State roads, which are signed with numbers, municipal roads are signed with names, such as Calle Hostos, Calle De Diego, Calle San Jorge, Calle León M. Acuña. Toll roads between San Juan and Arecibo, and between San Juan and Ponce were envisioned by J. Raymond Watson, a Puerto Rican engineer, in 1970.
All Puerto Rico expressways are signed either as primary or as urban primary routes.
<gallery mode=packed heights=100px>
Autopista PR-22, Arecibo, Puerto Rico (1).jpg| (PR-22) heading west in Arecibo
Puerto Rico Highway 52, PR-52, heading north, near the town of Santa Isabel, Puerto Rico.jpg| (PR-52) heading east from Juana Díaz towards Santa Isabel
PR-53, Pozo Hondo, Guayama, Puerto Rico.jpg| (PR-53) heading east in Guayama
PR-66 Este.jpg|A stretch of (PR-66) heading east to Río Grande
</gallery>
{| class="wikitable"
|- style="background: #efefef;"
! scope="col" | Route
! scope="col" | Name
! scope="col" | Terminus
! scope="col" | Maximum speed limit
! scope="col" | Notes
|-
! scope="row" style="white-space: nowrap;" | PR-2
| Expreso Kennedy
| Starts from San Patricio Plaza (Guaynabo) to Santurce (San Juan, aka Parada 18).
| 50 mph (80 km/h)
| Guaynabo to San Juan section only.
|-
! scope="row" style="white-space: nowrap;" | PR-2
| Roberto Sánchez Vilella
| Starts from Mayagüez Mall (Mayagüez) to PR-1 in Ponce
| 55 mph (90 km/h)
| Mostly converted to expressway from Mayagüez Mall to Ponce.
|-
! scope="row" style="white-space: nowrap;" | PR-5
| Expreso Río Hondo
| Bayamón, PR-22 to Naranjito, PR-147 and PR-149 with discontinuity between PR-199 in Bayamón and PR-167 in Toa Alta.
| 50 mph (80 km/h)
| Tolled. This road has three expressway segments as of April 2012—these are between PR-29 and PR-22 and between PR-2 and PR-199 (both in Bayamón), an unbuilt portion in southern Bayamón and a portion between PR-167 (Toa Alta) and the town of Naranjito.
|-
! scope="row" style="white-space: nowrap;" | PR-9
| Baldorioty de Castro
| PR-10 Barrio Portugués to PR-2 Barrio El Tuque
| to
| From PR-123 to PR-2 still under construction
|-
! scope="row" style="white-space: nowrap;" | PR-12
| Santiago de los Caballeros
| PR-14 Barrio Machuelo Abajo to PR-123 Barrio Playa
|
|
|-
! scope="row" style="white-space: nowrap;" | PR-18
| Expreso Las Américas
| PR-22 San Juan and PR-52 San Juan
| 55 to 65 mph (90 to 110 km/h)
|
|-
! scope="row" style="white-space: nowrap;" | PR-20
| Expreso Rafael Martínez Nadal
| PR-2 in the San Patricio area in Guaynabo to PR-1 in La Muda sector in Caguas
| 55 mph (90 km/h)
| Tolled
|-
! scope="row" style="white-space: nowrap;" | PR-22
| Autopista José de Diego
| Hatillo, PR-2 to San Juan, PR-26
| 65 mph (105 km/h)
| Extension to Aguadilla in planning. Tolled
|-
! scope="row" style="white-space: nowrap;" | PR-26
| Expreso Román Baldorioty de Castro
| San Antonio Bridge (Bridge to Old San Juan Island) to PR-3 in Carolina.
| 65 mph (105 km/h)
|
|-
! scope="row" style="white-space: nowsrap; | PR-30
| Expreso Cruz Ortiz Stella
| Caguas, PR-1 to Humacao, PR-53
| 55 mph (90 km/h)
|
|-
! scope="row" style="white-space: nowrap;" | PR-52
| Autopista Luis A. Ferré
| Ponce, PR-2 to San Juan, PR-1 and PR-18
| 65 mph (105 km/h)
| Tolled. This highway is the longest tolled freeway in Puerto Rico.
|-
! scope="row" style="white-space: nowrap;" | PR-53
| Autopista Dr. José Celso Barbosa
| Fajardo through Ceiba to Yabucoa, and then Guayama to Salinas.
| 65 mph (105 km/h)
| Maunabo tunnels constructed in October 2008. The segments between Yabucoa and Maunabo still incomplete.
|-
! scope="row" style="white-space: nowrap;" | PR-60
| Avenida Dionisio Casillas
| Humacao, PR-30 to Humacao, PR-3
| 55 mph (90 km/h)
|
|-
! scope="row" style="white-space: nowrap;" | PR-66
| Autopista Roberto Sánchez Vilella
| PR-3 in Carolina and Río Grande
| 65 mph (105 km/h)
| Second half opened in October 2012 to Río Grande. Tolled.
|-
! scope="row" style="white-space: nowrap;" | PR-165
| Expreso El Caño
| Guaynabo, PR-2 and PR-23 to Cataño
| 50 mph (80 km/h)
|
|}
List of highways
Below is a list of some highways in Puerto Rico along with the municipalities where they begin and end.
Primary highways
Primary roads are numbered in the 1 to 99 range and are distributed randomly throughout the island.
Secondary highways
Secondary roads are numbered in the 100 to 299 range. Unlike primary highways, which are numbered randomly throughout the island, secondary highways generally follow a grid pattern. They begin from the southwest portion of the island with PR-100 and increase in number as you progress in a northeasterly fashion. PR-100 is located in the southwestern town of Cabo Rojo, whilst PR-198 is in Juncos, Las Piedras and Humacao in the eastern part of Puerto Rico. The highest secondary highway number assigned so far (February 2014) is 252 (PR-252), located in the northeastern municipality-island of Culebra. A few roads “violate” this grid order; for example, PR-199 lies in Guaynabo and San Juan.
Interstates
thumb|300px|Map of Puerto Rico's Interstate Highways
There are no Interstate-signed highways in Puerto Rico, but there are roadways that have received up to 90% of their funding from the US Interstate Highway System. Still, at least as of 2007, none of such highways funded by the Interstate Highway program were planned or built to the standards of the Interstate Highway System. As of March 2001, Puerto Rico had of such roadways. As of 2001, there were three highways in Puerto Rico funded under the Interstate Highway Program. These routes—such as with Interstate Highways in Alaska and Interstate Highways in Hawaii—do not connect to the Interstate Highway System in the contiguous United States.
Like Interstate routes in Alaska, Puerto Rico Interstate routes are unsigned. For administrative and funding purposes, the three routes have been designated as PRI-1, PRI-2 and PRI-3
{|class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!Route
!Component routes
!Length<br />mi
!class=unsortable|Length<br />km
!class=unsortable|From
!class=unsortable|To
|-
|
|<br />
|
| PR-2 in Ponce
| PR-22 in San Juan (PR-22/PR-18 interchange)
|-
|
|<br />
|
| PR-1 in Ponce
| PR-18 in San Juan (PR-22/PR-18 interchange)
|-
|
|<br /><br /><br />
|
| PR-30 in Humacao
| PR-18 in San Juan (PR-22/PR-18 interchange)
|-
|}
See also
- List of highways in Ponce, Puerto Rico
- 1953 Puerto Rico highway renumbering
Notes
References
External links
- 2020 Manual de Rotulación para las Vías Públicas de Puerto Rico
- Puerto Rico Road Photos