Maya Train has 11 points in danger of collapse, what are they and where are they?

The Mayan Train presents at least 11 points with danger of collapse and collapses, in the most fragile part of the entire route of the Mayan Train, which is the Section 5 South, from Playa del Carmen to Tulum.

This, according to the scientific community and the Environmental Impact Statement (MIA); However, despite the court order that weighs on the project to stop the work, it continues.

And it is that an investigation of Political Animal reveals that When they changed the route of the railway, it ended up on top of karst terrain very fragileso a new MIA and a new geotechnical study were necessary to know the load capacity of the land.

Nevertheless, They decided not to do it because they were in a hurry to inaugurate the work and the study takes approximately a year and a half, he states Victor Hugo Martínez Rendónengineering coordinator of works for Section 5 of the Maya Train for one year.

It is worth remembering that Martinez Rendon resigned in January 2022, stating that it was technically unfeasible and environmentally unsustainable move the layout of the southern part of this Section 5, from the central median of federal highway 307 to the Mayan Jungle.

A court order that weighs on the Mayan Train, without complying

The lack of studies motivated a Merida court grant the definitive suspension of the works on Section 5 Southbut the AMLO Government goes beyond the law, since it has been confirmed that it has not been complied with: the drills continue drilling the ground to place the pilots of the viaduct and the excavators work at full speed.

In January 2024, a judge demanded that the federal government to present the studies geological, geophysical and geohydrological, in addition to the logs, construction reports and all the records you have about the cenotes, caverns and caves of this section.

New railway route, on fragile ground

In April 2022, ejidatarios of Jacinto Pat, municipality of Tulum, they invited Victor Hugo Martínez Rendón to a meeting where the government presented the Environmental Impact Statement (MIA) of the new route of the Section 5 Southbecause the railway that intends to travel in a circuit of 1,554 kilometers through 5 states of the Republic was going to pass through their lands.

And their properties are located above a dense system of cenotes, bodies of water, underground rivers and caveswhose roofs are extremely fragile.

“Is about a system completely immersed in water that is dissolving all the time”says Fernanda Lases Hernández, professor at the Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and expert in karst environments.

“Because of this dissolution process, this karst process, The roof of the cave can become thin enough to collapse. This is how cenotes are formed,” he says.

“The Mayan Train will generate sustained vibrations that could help fractures increaseand could eventually accelerate the processes of land subsidence and collapse.”

Why is section 5 south the most fragile of the Mayan Train?

Its white walls are porous and roughand its rocks are so fragile that they turn to dust if rubbed between your fingers.

On the roof of the Dos Balas and Oppenheimer cavesIn addition to the holes opened by the drills to place the piles, holes with a diameter of approximately one meter were recently formed, created by the vibrations of the works, according to specialists.

At the entrance to the Dos Balas cave there is a crack in the walllike those that form in buildings after an earthquake, and in Oppenheimer there are broken stalactites on the ground and mounds of limestone rock that fell from the roof.

Sac Actun, the largest underground caves in the world, affected by the Mayan Train

The most critical area of ​​this section is located a little further south, between the town of Chemuyil and Tulum: under the tracks is Actun bagthe most extensive underwater cave system on the planet, where in some points the ceiling of the caves is half a meter thick.

“Los divers “They report that they can hear the passage of vehicles on the road when the caves intersect with the road, which can give an idea of ​​how thin the rock layer on which the road currently sits may be,” says the MIA about Actun bag.

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Maya Train has 11 points in danger of collapse, what are they and where are they?

The journalistic investigation reveals 11 points of the Mayan Train route that, according to the MIA, are at greater risk of collapse or subsidencein it Section 5 South, which is the most worrying:

1. Part 3. Between Maxcanú and Calkiní in Yucatán, intersection of the Ring of Cenotes, which is a semicircular alignment made up of 99 cenotes and was created when a meteorite hit the earth 66 million years ago.
2. Section 4. It also intersects with the Ring of Cenotes, an area with a high danger of sinking.
3. Section 4. Crossing. Between Izamal and Chichén Itzá, with danger of collapse according to the MIA.
4. Section 4. Between Tinum and Valladolid, marks high danger by karst soil.
5. Section 4. Cross. Between Valladolid and Nuevo Xcán there is a high density of cenotes and sinkholes.
6. Section 4. Crossing. Near Leona Vicario, indicates danger of collapse due to the roof of cavities and caverns
7. Section 4. Near the Cancun airport, almost arriving, the Mayan Train passes through an area where the ceiling of the caves is fragile.
8. Section 5. Intersection Section 5 South and the cave system Actun bagvery close to Tulum, is one of the 11 points with increased danger of collapse: “It has the highest proportion of flooded caverns in the entire project,” says the MIA.
9. Section 6. At the exit from Tulum, heading to the airport, there is a high density of cenotes and underwater caves.
10. Section 6. Between Tulum and Felipe Carrillo PuertoConnection of this section with a point of my high karstitythat is, porous.
11. Section 6. Intersection between Section 6 and Bacalar Lagoon of the Seven Colors, marked with risk of sinking.

Image: Political Animal.

This map that presents Political Animal It is in accordance with the MIA, although they present insufficient information, which does not allow evaluating the real effect that the works will cause.

Greater risk at points in danger of collapse of the Mayan Train

But also among those 11 points with danger of collapse of the Mayan Train, There are some that the MIA classify as high to critical risk and it must be highlighted.

• They are located along Section 4, which goes from Izamal (Yucatán) to Cancún
• From Section 6, which crosses the south of Quintana Roo
• And at the intersection between the train tracks and the Ring of Cenotes, a semicircular alignment of 99 cenotes formed by a meteorite that impacted the Earth about 66 million years ago, and that crosses Sections 4 and 3.

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Y to support the tracks, sleepers and ballast of the train in Section 5 South they saw a 3 meter thick embankment and in Semarnat there was talk of building the entire section a reinforced cant slab 60 meters wide by 60 centimeters thick.

“A karst soil cannot support such heavy earthenware.”you are inventing as you go.”

Victor Hugo Martínez Rendón.

After in December 2022, Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced a viaduct to protect the cavesengineer Martínez Rendón had already expressed his concern to a colonel.

“I told you thatn terrain of this type is very irregular and you cannot define a common depth of the piles, since the solid layer of the ground can be 25 meters for one pile and 70 for another. They ignored me again”, he states.

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Greater danger of the Mayan Train when it is loaded

According to Emiliano Monroy-Ríos, expert in geochemistry and hydrogeology of karst Northwestern Universityto know if the base of the pilots is on firm ground, it would be necessary to geological and geophysical exploration for each of them and present an MIA for each cenote or cave intervened.

The academic remembers that in recent years several collapses have been recorded very large on federal highway 307, which goes from Cancun to Chetumal running parallel to the layout of sections 5 and 6.

“Asphalt has a lot of flexibility, With the train tracks the situation is more delicate, as some small subsidences could misalign them and cause a derailment”says Emiliano Monroy-Ríos.

But the freight railway, which as of September 2024 should start running at a speed of 100 km/h on the tracks of the Mayan Train, could exert a even greater pressure on the ground being that it will weigh 32.50 tons, almost double the passenger convoy.

“Because the weight of the load, that is, the weight of the train convoy, influences in the vibrations that can generate rock collapses. braking inertia is another important factor, being that when the train brakes it also exerts great force”answers Monroy-Ríos.

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