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López Obrador: Tren Maya sections 5 south, 6 and 7 for end of August

Riviera Maya, Q.R. — The remaining two-and-a-half sections of unfinished Tren Maya route is expected to be delivered in August. During his Monday morning press conference, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador admitted they are facing problems with completion, but do have a finish date.

He said the remaining Tren Maya sections which include section 5 south (Playa del Carmen to Tulum), as well as section 6 (Tulum to Bacalar) and 7 (Bacalar to Escárcega, Campeche), will be inaugurated at the end of August.

“We are working from Playa del Carmen to Escárcega. It is a great project done in record time. It is going to be completely finished even though we are facing problems,” he reported Monday.

Showing section 5 south on a map, he said that section has cost the most to build due to the karst nature of the soil and the concentration of a large number of cenotes and underground rivers.

To avoid further damage to the subsoil he said approximately 80 kilometers of track is being built above ground on a viaduct.

“The train goes up so as not to affect it,” he said adding that the construction of a 200-meter cable-stayed bridge is also causing delays.

“We are not going to fix columns. It is going to be a cable-stayed bridge and this means a delay for us. This bridge alone, it could have been drilled and the piles put in, but we said no, we are going to take care of the area and that is why the bridge,” he explained.

During the Monday press conference, López Obrador also touched on the topic of water contamination allegations made by environmentalists along section 5. “We had a problem in a cave when placing a column… we are already cleaning, repairing everything and solving the problem,” he reported without providing details.

López Obrador said the elevated viaducts that comprise section 5 south are nearly ready but cannot be connected to Tulum yet since the cable-stayed bridge is not finished, a project that they intend to finish by the end of August.