EFE.- The Government of Mexico City reported this Wednesday that 21 cracks were found in the metallic structure of the elevated section of Metro Line 12 after a detailed inspection carried out by engineering specialists.
The tragedy occurred on May 3, when an elevated bridge of Line 12 collapsed, in the Tláhuac mayor’s office, so the wagon fell on the road and was stranded in the shape of a “V”, leaving 26 dead and a hundred of injured.
The discovery of the 21 new cracks was generated after an expert opinion of the Mexico City Prosecutor’s Office determined that the diaphragms – structures that provide rigidity to the girders – of the collapsed section presented cracks generated by a wear phenomenon known as “fatigue due to induced distortion ”.
Both the expert opinion of the Prosecutor’s Office and an independent report commissioned by the Government of Mexico City from a Norwegian company concluded that the accident was due to a “structural failure” of the construction.
Read: 2021: the year CDMX opened cable car, but the Metro also collapsed
However, the discovery of the flaws in the section led the local administration to thoroughly inspect the issue of the cracks.
“It is a detailed, specialized inspection. At the time, the entire section was inspected by the college of civil engineers (…) in a regular inspection it is impossible to detect, ”said Jesús Antonio Esteva, CDMX Secretary of Works, at a conference.
This inspection was carried out by engineering specialists from the Autonomous University of Nuevo León (UANL), whose results will be considered in the rehabilitation and reinforcement works of the line.
The faults were found in three different types of areas in the section that includes the area of the tragedy.
According to the official, the results of the work carried out by UANL specialists will be considered in the rehabilitation and reinforcement works of Line 12.
Grupo Carso, owned by the Mexican magnate Carlos Slim and who was in charge of building the damaged part of the subway, announced a “reparatory agreement” with the Government of Mexico City to rehabilitate the section of the subway that collapsed in May, although it declined responsibility of the accident.
The capital’s Prosecutor’s Office has already presented the first 10 complaints against those allegedly responsible for the accident, among which Enrique Horcasitas, former director of the Metro Project that raised the construction, stands out.
The tragedy has caused a political earthquake because it splashes on Chancellor Marcelo Ebrard, mayor of the capital when the subway was built, and the current head of government, Claudia Sheinbaum, both candidates from the ruling party to succeed President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in 2024.
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