Why the Mexico City Metro Collapsed
Source: New York Times
Why the Mexico City Metro Collapsed
A Times investigation shows the serious construction flaws and political pressure behind a tragedy that threatens two of Mexico’s most prominent figures.
By Natalie Kitroeff, Maria Abi-Habib, James Glanz, Oscar Lopez, Weiyi Cai, Evan Grothjan, Miles Peyton and Alejandro Cegarra June 13, 2021
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But a New York Times investigation — based on years of government records, interviews with people who worked on the construction, and expert analysis of evidence from the crash site — has found serious flaws in the basic construction of the metro that appear to have led directly to its collapse.
The disaster has already spiraled into a political crisis, threatening to ensnare two of the nation’s most powerful figures: the president’s foreign secretary, Marcelo Ebrard, and one of the world’s wealthiest businessmen, Carlos Slim.
Mr. Ebrard was mayor of Mexico City when the new metro line, known as the “Golden Line,” was built, a heralded expansion of the second largest subway in the Americas that could boost his credentials for a possible presidential run. And Mr. Slim’s construction company, Carso Infrastructure and Construction, built the portion of the line that collapsed — the firm’s first rail project, paving the way for more.
The Times took thousands of photographs of the crash site and shared the evidence with several leading engineers who reached the same conclusion: The steel studs that were vital to the strength of the overpass — linchpins of the entire structure — appear to have failed because of bad welds, critical mistakes that likely caused the crash.
That is one of the primary explanations being considered by Mexico City officials, according to several people familiar with the official investigations into the disaster, and it underscores a pattern of political expediency and haphazard work as the metro was being built.
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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/06/12/world/americas/mexico-city-train-crash.html
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— In a rush to finish, the city demanded that construction companies open the subway well before Ebrard’s term as mayor ended in 2012. The scramble led to a frenzied construction process that began before a master plan had been finalised and produced a metro line with defects from the start. The outcry over the problems was so intense that Ebrard eventually moved out of the country for 14 months, leaving behind what he called a “political witch hunt.”
— Federal auditors found that the city “authorised poor quality work” even as the line was being built. The metro was certified less than an hour before it was inaugurated, even though thousands of pieces of work had not been completed, according to a 2014 investigation by the city’s Legislative Assembly.
— During an inspection after a major earthquake in 2017, the city found errors in the original construction of the section built by Slim’s company, including incorrectly poured concrete and missing steel components, according to an unreleased government document from 2017.
