Mexico: The new Santa Lucia airport, a puzzle in a time trial.
In spite of the controversies, the works of the new international airport of Mexico City are progressing and its opening is scheduled for March 2022, after a cancellation of the mega-project of the Government of Enrique Peña Nieto, today considered a nest of corruption by many.
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The capacity of Mexico City International Airport has been exceeded for almost 15 years, going from 20 million in 2006 to almost 50 million in 2019, a new terminal was required. The project was analyzed from the Vicente Fox Government (2000-2006), until it began in 2014 with Peña Nieto (2012-2018).
The shadow of corruption was cast over this project because from the original 120 billion pesos (about US$5.565 billion), it rose in four years to 300 billion pesos (about US$13.93 billion).
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Experts estimated that its final cost would be almost 400,000 million pesos (18,548 million dollars) and would be ready in 2024.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, its main critic, canceled the work upon reaching the Presidency of Mexico, supported by a citizen consultation and as an alternative he presented the Military Air Base of Santa Lucía, State of Mexico, to build the airport.
At the end of September 2019, Lopez Obrador declared this construction as a matter of “national security” and it began in mid-October 2019 with a budget of 75 billion pesos (about 3,485 million dollars).
COLOSSAL PUZZLE
The construction of the airport in Santa Lucía is like a mile-long puzzle, which must be solved against the clock and which the Ministry of National Defense (Sedena), in charge of the work, is trying to solve.
To give it shape and “accommodate” hundreds of thousands of square meters of construction, around 900 military personnel are in charge of controlling the execution of the huge project in which more than 22,200 workers are working.
The difficulty of the monumental challenge began on the same day as the works, October 17, 2019, when López Obrador established March 21, 2022 as the opening date, that is, 26 months of work.
“The progress of the work is at 30.34% and is above the schedule we have planned,” said the construction engineer José Juan Marín Solís in an interview with Efe. “On March 21, 2022 we will deliver the airport in operation,” he added during a tour of Efe to check on progress.
AN ARMY IN CHARGE AND ANOTHER WORKING
The parade of trucks and dump trucks at the construction site, and of people, is unceasing. The vehicles move thousands of tons of construction materials, while others arrive from the airport that was to be built in Texcoco.
In the distance, hundreds of workers look like ants doing their jobs. They represent an unparalleled workforce that works eight-hour days and in some areas, where work does not stop, they are divided into three shifts.
Others who also work hard every day, amidst constant and heavy clouds of dust, are the technicians in charge of the excavators, cranes and forklifts, who make constant maneuvers without stopping their shifts.
According to the Mexican Army, in the almost 11 months of construction, the work has generated some 39,500 jobs.
RUNWAYS, CONTROL TOWER AND TERMINAL
A wide street of 45 meters wide and 4.5 kilometers long, has been finished in hydraulic concrete and only 800 meters of that material remain to be shaped as the central track.
“We have practically finished the central runway and another runway that is practically finished is the military one, the complex of military facilities, relocated, and the terminal building has a substantial advance in its structure,” explained the also spokesman of the engineers in Santa Lucia.
While the control tower “already exceeds 64 meters in height (of the 88 meters projected).
To meet the deadline, Marín Solís, resident engineer of the 9th Front, said that several strategies have been implemented on the site for the advances, among them, internal material loan banks.
“We take advantage of these areas in the military base for the extraction of material that allows us to have a very fast construction dynamic in addition to lowering costs in the transfer of materials,” he said.
He said that, after almost 11 months of work, “practically all the stone materials that have been used in the place have been obtained from the same interior of the military base and the material that was in Texcoco.
From the cancelled construction, materials such as basalt, tezontle, electrical material, piping, drainage, steel and structural material for buildings are used, which do not represent a cost in the construction budget of 79 billion pesos (about 3.645 million dollars).
MILITARY AND TRANSPARENCY
With Sedena’s participation in the project, the Mexican Government avoids this payment since the military is serving the nation.
Under the tool of the Construction Information Modeling (MIC), taken over from the Building Information Modeling (BIM), the Army seeks to make planning efficient, reduce overtime and cost overruns and privilege transparency and accountability.
MIC contemplates, among other advantages, a virtual representation of the work and real times and costs.
Marín Solís recalled that the airport in its first stage will have three runways, two for commercial operations and one for the military.
The initial project included 2,300 hectares, but 1,400 hectares were acquired for a total of 3,700, more than five times the extension of the current Mexico City International Airport which is 750 hectares.
The future Mexican airport will have a capacity of about 20.5 million users per year and is expected to receive about 85 million in various stages of construction over the next three decades 2030, 2040 and 2050.
Santa Lucía will operate alongside the current Mexico City International Airport (AICM) and Toluca Airport, also in the State of Mexico, and between them they will have six runways available.
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