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The Provincial Road Safety Commission of Granma announced this Saturday the complete closure of the bridge located at kilometer 34 of the Las Tunas–Bayamo highway, over the Salado River, in the town of the same name, due to the damages caused by Hurricane Melissa in October 2025.
The measure prohibits traffic in both directions and requires drivers to use the Carretera Central as an alternative route, following the Tunas–Holguín–Granma course, specified the note shared on the Facebook page of the telecenter CNC TV Granma.
In comments on the official publication, citizen Lázaro Aguilera clarified that the damage does not affect the structure of the bridge, but rather the embankment of the approach, that is, the embankment that connects the road to the bridge.
"The monitoring of the failure resulting from the erosion of the approach embankment has been maintained. There is no damage to the bridge structure. Due to the ongoing monitoring, no accident has occurred," he explained.
The authorities assured that efforts are already underway to restore traffic "as soon as possible" and apologized for the inconveniences.
What angers Cubans the most is not the closure itself, but the delay, as Hurricane Melissa made landfall on October 29, 2025, as a Category 3 storm along the southern coast of Guamá, Santiago de Cuba, and several roads in the east became impassable from the early days of November.
The formal announcement of the closure comes more than six months after the cyclone, triggering a wave of criticism on social media.
"After so many months since the hurricane, they are only now taking safety measures. Thankfully, thank God, no disaster occurred," wrote Luis Felipe Garlobo Estrada.
Mariela Guerrero Delgado was more direct: "For God's sake, Melissa passed in October and that’s when the problem persists. No, and it will continue. Words fail me."
Jose Manuel Ricardo summarized the general sentiment with irony. "Excellent job on prevention, following Hurricane Melissa," he remarked.
The economic impact of the diversion is just as concerning, if not more so, than the delay. The alternative route through Holguín leads to higher fuel consumption, a critically scarce resource in Cuba, and increases the fares and shipping costs for small and medium-sized enterprises.
"Now, with the increased fuel consumption of the vehicles traveling from the East to Havana and vice versa via Holguín, the cost of fares, which are already quite high, is rising as well. Similarly, the prices for freight transportation in the mipymes are also soaring," warned Leandro Barcaz.
Roberto Santiesteban pointed to the lack of maintenance as a fundamental cause. "Consider the bridges on the Central highway; they are approaching 100 years old and are still standing. We have lost the practice of maintaining them," he remarked.
The road recovery in the east has been slow and uneven. In November 2025, Venezuela sent technicians to repair damaged roads from the hurricane, and two weeks after Melissa, the Plan Turquino was still struggling to recover, highlighting the extent of the damage and the sluggishness of the state response.
"Almost a year since Melissa, I don't understand anything," summarized Mayra Aguilera Angeriz, expressing the frustration of thousands of Eastern Cubans who are still waiting for the infrastructure destroyed by the cyclone to be repaired.
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