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Mexico’s Richest Man To Rebuild For Free A Collapsed Railway Bridge His Company Built In 2012 After Killing 26
Mexico’s richest man and former wealthiest person Carlos Slim to rebuild a collapsed railway bridge his company built in 2012 after killing 26.
A study cited poor welds in studs that joined the steel support beams to a concrete layer supporting the track bed.
The report also said there were apparently not enough studs, and the concrete poured over them may have been defective.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Wednesday said Mexico’s richest man Carlos Slim has pledged to rebuild the segment of a Mexico City subway line that collapsed on May 3rd for free.
One of Slim’s companies had originally built much of the section of the Line 12 railway bridge where the collapse occurred in May, killing 26 people.
But Slim, an engineer by training and former world’s wealthiest man, has denied there were construction defects on the bridge which was opened to public in 2012.
López Obrador said telecom and construction magnate has promised to pay for the rebuilding out of his own pocket and have it back in service in a year.
“He is going to take charge of rebuilding the whole stretch, being careful to ensure it is safe enough, without any cost to the public,”
“He is going to pay for everything, he promised,”
“He is not going to wait for the legal question (to be resolved), so that it can be back up and working for the benifit of the public again in one year.”
A study by Norwegian certification firm DNV, hired by city government, cited poor welds in studs that joined the steel support beams to a concrete layer supporting the track bed.
The report said there were apparently not enough studs, and the concrete poured over them may have been defective.
During the May 3 accident, a span of the elevated line buckled to the ground, dragging down two subway cars.
The defective line built between 2010 and 2012 could be a major blow to Slim, whose firm is currently involved in building some parts of the controversial Maya Train project.
