The massive drill brought in from Spain to bore the tunnel section of the city’s third subway line running beneath downtown Guadalajara’s traffic clogged streets may not be ready for use until the second quarter of 2016.
Federal and state agencies in charge of the project admit that the underground part of the Tren Ligero line is several months behind schedule and that the exact date when work on the tunnel will begin is still unclear.
The drill, which measures 95 meters in length, is still being assembled. When fully fitted out it will weigh around 2,300 tons.
The 21.5-kilometer line will run from the northern Periferico in Zapopan (Belenes), through the downtown zones of Zapopan, Guadalajara and Tlaquepaque, to the bus station in Tonala. The five underground stations — Normal, Santuario, Catedral, Independencia Sur and Plaza de la Bandera — will all be in the city center.
Although the Line Three project is still only one-third complete, Tren Ligero (Siteur) Director Rodolfo Guadalajara Gutiérrez, has promised that road closures will be kept to a minimum in 2016, as much of the ground-level work has concluded. Traffic will flow freely on major avenues such as Avila Camacho and Revolution while beams and rails are fitted to the elevated railway, he said.
Meanwhile, Canadian company Bombardier has won the contract to supply the trains for the new subway line.
The preliminary order will be for 12 trains, each comprised of two carriages, at a cost of 752 million pesos. Each train will have a capacity for 900 passengers.