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Construction work on partly built Mexico City International Airport officially suspended

2019-01-04T13:32:00-05:00

Some work continued on Thursday at a partly-built $13 billion Mexico City airport that the new president is scrapping, even after the government announced construction had been halted. [...] The head of the government-run agency responsible for the project, Gerardo Ferrando, said the only construction still underway was to preserve what had already been built, such as drainage works, slabs of foundation and a partly-built tower.

NAICM aerial visualization. Rendering: Dbox.

It's unclear what should happen now with the partly built new Mexico City International Airport which, some argue, was about one-third complete. "Construction work is officially suspended on that airport, and negotiations on the early termination of the contracts has begun," said Communications and Transport Minister Javier Jimenez Espriu in a news conference this week.

Interior concept. Rendering: Dbox.

The mammoth $13 billion infrastructure project was designed by a conglomerate comprising Foster + Partners, FR-EE (Fernando Romero Enterprise), and NACO (Netherlands Airport Consultants).

Mexican voters reject partly built $13 billion Mexico City International Airport project

2018-10-29T14:14:00-04:00

Voters in Mexico have rejected completion of partly built new airport for Mexico City, opposing it by a 70 to 29 percent margin. Mexico’s President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Monday he will respect the referendum, effectively ending the $13 billion project which is already about one-third built. “The decision taken by the citizens is democratic, rational and efficient,” Lopez Obrador said. “The people decided.”

It's looking like the end of the runway for the partly built new Mexico City International Airport designed by a conglomerate comprising Foster + Partners, FR-EE (Fernando Romero Enterprise), and NACO (Netherlands Airport Consultants).

While the public vote clearly disapproved of the $13 billion megaproject that's been associated with corruption and overspending, the referendum is not without criticism due to its extremely low voter turnout.

Mexican president-elect softens his opposition to $13 billion airport project

2018-07-09T15:16:00-04:00

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexico’s next president, is no longer seeking an immediate suspension of Mexico City’s new $13 billion airport, according to a member of his economic transition team. Abel Hibert, who attended a planning meeting with Lopez Obrador and about 100 aides from the transition team on Tuesday evening, said it was clear that there’ll be no immediate demand to President Enrique Pena Nieto to suspend construction of the airport, at least until a review of the contracts.

Canceling the new Mexico City International Airport project due to alleged corruption and wasteful spending was one of the campaign promises of socialist (then) candidate, and now president-elect, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

The tone appears to have softened now to not completely alienate investors, and an AMLO aide laid our three possibilities: "Auctioning the airport to the private sector, moving it to an alternative site (which would mean losses on construction that’s already happened), or going ahead with the current plan," Bloomberg reports.

A conglomerate comprising Foster + Partners, FR-EE (Fernando Romero Enterprise), and NACO (Netherlands Airport Consultants) had won the international architectural competition in 2014 for what might become one of the world's largest airports with (up to) six runways and a 560,000-square-meter terminal.