The Sedena proposed to the President to build an elevated viaduct for the Mayan Train, from Cancun to Playa del Carmen.

The Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional (Sedena) will build section 5 north of the Tren Maya, which will consist of an elevated viaduct from the Cancún airport to Playa del Carmen.

This, after the public tender for the construction of the section was cancelled after two postponements, at the beginning and end of February, informed this Friday the National Tourism Development Fund (Fonatur).

For the section, 10 proposals had been received for the construction of the electrified railroad, but the option of being elevated convinced President Andrés Manuel López Obrador the most, as he himself said today at the event to kick off the works.

“We have already found a solution to build the infrastructure of the Mayan Train from Cancun to Tulum, it is the shortest distance section but the most complex of all the sections. We had to try to finish the work soon, so that it would not take forever, and we had to do it with a construction company we trusted absolutely, proven for its efficiency, for its responsibility, so we decided after careful consideration, after analyzing it, that the best thing was to leave this section to the military engineers,” he said from Cancun.

“The entire section is going to be built as a second floor, about 50 kilometers, a lookout point, it is going to be the most beautiful train, the train that will allow us to better admire the beauties in the world, because it will go up from Cancun to Playa (del Carmen), there is no impact because they are columns, beams, prefabricated whales, to be assembled”, he added.

According to López Obrador, the proposal for the Mayan Train to be elevated in the section was made by the Sedena itself.

“The military, the Undersecretary, the Secretary of Defense, all presented me with this option as a surprise, very recently, this alternative of not going below, but above, and we decided to approve this construction strategy that will work,” stated the President.

In an informative note, Fonatur gave more details of the cancellation of the tender. It explained that it seeks to “take advantage of the technical experience” of the Sedena in the “execution of public works” and emphasized that this institution has “the knowledge, the professionalism and the human resources”.

In addition, this decision seeks to “strengthen budgetary rationality and discipline”, since the work will be in the hands of the Army and there will be “significant savings”.

Section 5 north is one of the most important sections of the project, as it will connect the Cancun airport with Playa del Carmen, two of the main tourist attractions in the Mexican Caribbean.

On January 29th, the awarding of the construction of section 5 south of the Mayan Train was announced to a consortium including Grupo Mexico and the Spanish company Acciona, for an amount of a little more than 17,815 million pesos (about 850 million dollars).

The Mayan Train is a priority project of López Obrador with an investment of 6,294 million dollars for close to 1,554 kilometers in the five states of the southeast: Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo.

The general director of Fonatur, Rogelio Jiménez Pons, stated in February that the Mayan Train will be completed in 2021 with a 30% advance “at any cost”.

Source: https://www.forbes.com.mx/sedena-tramo-5-tren-maya-elevado/