Section 5 of the Mayan Train does not report work progress

Cancun, QR. Ten months after the change in the layout of Section 5 of the Mayan Train to accelerate the construction of the project, no progress has been reported except for the clearing of the jungle to the west of Playa del Carmen, where more and more caves and cenotes are found that would require to rethink the line.

The most recent finding is a cave with a diameter of more than 70 meters called Tortuga, right on the route of Section 5 south, which will force the route to be adjusted to avoid risks of collapse, according to testimonies collected from ICA workers who carry out studies topographical, which ensure that this prevents speeding up the progress of the work as requested by the Ministry of National Defense in charge of this section.

While in the first four sections of the train there is already ballast placement, construction of stations and laying of tracks, for sections 5, 6 and 7 there are no mention of work progress reports that are broadcast every Monday during the president’s morning conference Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

The delivery term of the 1,500 kilometers that covers the entire route of the Mayan Train expires in December 2023.

The Sélvame del Tren movement has warned that “the more time passes and the pressure increases for those in charge of executing the work, more and more improvisations will be incurred that could ultimately end in a tragedy.”

Modifications

On January 19 of this year, in his first conference as newly appointed director of the National Fund for the Promotion of Tourism (Fonatur), Javier May announced that the works on an elevated viaduct, which until then had been at least five months in progress, were being cancelled. Advance to highway 307 through the center of Playa del Carmen, to move the route 7 kilometers to the west of the city, with the aim of “meeting the delivery times” that López Obrador has requested.

Until last March, the first images of the clearing of the forest in the new section of Section 5 south began to circulate, which led to the first appeals against the project in the following weeks.

Said injunctions managed to stop for up to three months the progress of the felling of the jungle through which the road will run, but it was resumed when in July of this year the federal government designated the Mayan Train as a national security project, which allowed it to continue. the clearing of the jungle despite the work suspensions ordered by the judges.

During the amparo trials, environmental organizations argued that the clearing of the jungle was carried out without a prior study that would guarantee the viability of a freight and passenger train in an area in which caves and underground rivers abound with a high risk of subsoil collapse.

Last month, López Obrador acknowledged that after opening the gap in the jungle to make way for the Mayan Train track in Section 5 south, they were barely preparing studies to determine “what is in the subsoil” and define the technical solutions that will be given to the innumerable caves and cenotes found in the area.

“Now there is no construction work on the section, the breach has been opened, nothing more; Geological studies are being carried out (…) The decision is that where there are underground rivers, cenotes, they choose to make diversions or bridges, viaducts, second floors. In the firm part, the foundations are going to be laid and slabs are going to be laid so that the train can pass above”, stated the president on September 14.

The environmental organization Right to a Healthy Environment assures that during the amparos filed against sections 5 south and north, it provided sufficient evidence on the fact that the environmental impact authorizations violate the preventive character that a procedure of this type must have, for be extemporaneous.

In addition to the fact that they fail to comply with local ecological regulations that protect cenotes and caves and that Fonatur did not present soil mechanics, geophysical or geohydrological studies to justify the new line of the train.

estados@eleconomista.mx