Route 9 to Garzón: the divided highway and the new roundabout at the entrance
If you're driving to Garzón village on Route 9, the approach has changed: since October 2024, a 10.5-mile (17-kilometer) stretch has been widened into a divided highway, with a roundabout right at the village entrance, around kilometer 175. That's the segment connecting the bridge over the Garzón stream to the junction with Camino Garzón-Sainz Martínez, part of a much larger road project between the departments of Maldonado and Rocha.
Uruguay's Ministry of Transport and Public Works (MTOP) opened that stretch on October 24, 2024: 17 kilometers of Route 9, between km 160.950 and km 177.800, upgraded from a single lane in each direction to a divided carriageway with two lanes per side. The works included a roundabout at the entrance to Garzón, two U-turn points to change direction without risky maneuvers, two sheltered bus stops, and three new bridges over the Anastasio stream and the Silva and La Cruz creeks. The investment for this segment was about USD 25.7 million.
For anyone driving toward Garzón village — say, to visit Bodega Garzón winery or do one of the family activities in the area — the roundabout is now the clearest landmark for the turn-off: it sits right on the highway, with signage pointing into the village.
This stretch is one piece of a much bigger project: a CREMAF contract (a build-rehabilitate-maintain-finance scheme used for Uruguayan road concessions) to rehabilitate 104.35 kilometers (about 65 miles) of Route 9, between Pan de Azúcar (Maldonado) and the entrance to Rocha (from km 105.65 to km 210), with a total investment of over USD 157.9 million. The full project calls for a divided carriageway along the entire corridor, plus 30 bridges, 10 roundabouts, and 8 U-turn points. When the Garzón stretch opened in October 2024, MTOP reported that 61% of the overall project was already complete — from km 107.5 at Pan de Azúcar to km 204.5 at the entrance to Rocha — and that it expected to have 80 kilometers of renewed divided highway ready for the following summer season, with about 60 kilometers still awaiting new pavement after that summer.
Since this is a multi-year project moving forward section by section, conditions on any given stretch can change, and there may be developments after this article that aren't reflected here. Before you drive out — especially at night or in rainy weather — it's worth checking the current status of Route 9 through MTOP or the Maldonado departmental government (Intendencia de Maldonado), particularly if your route runs beyond the 17 kilometers already upgraded near Garzón.
The other classic way into the area is Route 10, which crosses Laguna Garzón over the circular bridge: depending on where you're coming from, you can combine both routes. And if your trip includes the Rocha-side stretch of Route 10 between La Paloma and La Pedrera, the note on the improvements on that section has the details.
Bottom line: if your mental landmark for Garzón used to be "look for the turn into the village," there's now a signed roundabout marking it, right around kilometer 175 of Route 9 — part of the upgrades MTOP has been adding to the Maldonado-Rocha corridor since 2024.
Sources: Ministerio de Transporte y Obras Públicas (Uruguay's Ministry of Transport and Public Works); Presidencia de la República; Intendencia de Rocha.