The collapse of an overhead section of the metro in Mexico City, which left 26 dead and nearly 80 injured on May 3, was caused by a “Structural defect” in the construction of the bridge, according to the preliminary conclusions of an expert report made public on Wednesday June 16.
Jesus Esteva, head of public works at the city hall of Mexico City, delivered the conclusions of a report produced at the request of the municipality by the Norwegian appraisal company Det Norske Veritas to try to understand the causes of the accident that saw a skytrain train plunge into the void after a bridge collapsed.
The expertise identified several “Failures in the construction process”, especially problems related to welds “Unfinished or poorly executed”, has a “Lack of bolts (…) in the beams of the bridge “, as well as the use of “Different types of concrete” in the building.
A site marred by controversies
The affected section of line 12, known as the Golden Line, is 24.5 km long and cost $ 1.2 billion. It is one of the two lines of the Mexican metro which does not run on tires but on railways. It was inaugurated in October 2012 when the current Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard, a close friend of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, was mayor of the metropolis (2012-2018).
The site had been marred by a controversy over budget overruns and multiple technical failures. In 2014, the operation of 12 stations had been suspended for a little over a year due, already, to degradation of the track, sleepers, fasteners of the rails, themselves subject to a suspicious corrugation.
In addition to the expertise of the Norwegian company, which must submit two more reports on July 14 and August 30, the disaster is being investigated by the prosecutor’s office. Relatives of the victims of the accident are calling for justice, accusing the authorities of negligence.