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For the fourth time this year, the project to build a long-awaited Mexico City-Toluca commuter train has been halted by a mishap.
La Jornada newspaper reported that a 200-meter long, 800-ton crane collapsed Wednesday morning in the Mexico City borough of Álvaro Obregón. The crane was placing a bridge segment on an
elevated stretch of the tracks when the accident occurred.
The Mexico City government stated in a press release that there were no injuries and that the only damage was to the crane itself.
“To uncover the cause of the mishap, there will be two investigations: one conducted by Rizzani Echer [the construction company involved] and the other by the city attorney general,” the
government said.
Construction in the area will be halted until the investigations are complete, after which the damaged crane will be removed.
How this latest accident will impact plans to open the final two sections of the track this summer is still unknown. The T21 news site reported that during a late February press conference,
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador declared that the entire line would be operational by August.
That same day, the president also revealed that the overall cost of the project — construction began in July 2014 during the Enrique Peña Nieto administration — had climbed to 100 billion
pesos (US $5.8 billion), up from the 23 billion pesos (US $1.3 billion) López Obrador had announced last September.
The president inaugurated Section 1 of the CDMX-Toluca commuter train — called The “Insurgent” — on Sept. 15.
“Finishing the first stage of this project is proof that we will not leave public works unfinished,” López Obrador said at the time.
Seven months later, the commuter rail is still only operating in the Toluca metropolitan area.
The nearly 60-kilometer (58 miles) railway is comprised of three sections.
La Jornada reported that of the three other accidents on the project this year, two occurred within Section 3, including another crane collapse in January — also in Álvaro Obregón. In that
accident, a massive chunk of concrete fell within meters of civilians on the ground.
Television network TV Azteca published a list of accidents associated with the project, dating back to May 2016, including two fatal ones in the past 10 months.