Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was on hand Saturday, 12 September to witness the inauguration of a new, largely elevated light rail line for Mexico’s second-largest city, Guadalajara.
Line 3 of the metro system runs 21km from the northwestern suburbs, through the city centre, and on to the south east. The journey end-to-end takes 35 minutes.
According to a UN report, it is the first major transit project in 25 years for this city of more than 4 million, which has seen rapid population growth and urban sprawl.Â
It was designed by Spain-headquartered engineer Sener, and supervised by a joint venture of France’s Egis and Transconsult of Mexico.
Most of the line – some 15km – runs above ground on a viaduct, the rest in a tunnel.
It has 18 stations serving the municipalities of Zapopan, Guadalajara and Tlaquepaque.Â
Over the 36-month construction period, Egis and Transconsult supervised design, construction and commissioning of all systems, as well as civil engineering.
Egis said 25 key experts and around 100 support engineers oversaw the project, which included managing the interfaces of seven separate works contracts.
In a press release, Egis said: "Today with this flagship project, Egis reasserted their active presence in Mexico and in other countries of Latina America with several contracts awarded from these last months in Colombia, in Brazil, in Peru and Chili. Egis stated their claim to becoming one of the leading actor in Latin America."
Photograph: One of 18 stations on the new Line 3 of Guadalajara’s metro system (Sener)
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