Jalisco state finishes major BRT project, readies new US$500mn light rail

The infrastructure and public works ministry of Mexico’s Jalisco state (SIOP) has moved on to the 10bn-peso (US$478mn) line No. 4 of the Mi Tren light rail system, after having just finished the 8.9bn-peso Mi Macro Periférico BRT corridor. 

The two works are part of governor Enrique Alfaro’s priority infrastructure projects, but the line has faced delays since 2019 due to a lack of federal funding. 

“We have already started line No. 4. The first road junction that forms part of this project is in the bidding process,” Jalisco’s infrastructure and public works minister David Miguel Zamora told BNamericas. 

SIOP’s early works on the fourth light rail line concern a series of actions already agreed with the federal government to start the project. However, the state is still waiting for federal approval of the works. 

“It is a project that goes together with the government of the Republic. There have already been a series of negotiations where the series of actions that have to be carried out have been defined. There is a defined amount of a project,” he said.

“We are waiting for the federal government to make the official announcement, other investments and steps to follow,” Zamora said.

The 20km line will connect central Guadalajara and Tlajomulco de Zúñiga municipality and serve eight stations, creating a link with line No. 1 and the Mi Macro Periférico BRT beltway corridor, which SIOP finished about two months ago. 

At the end of December, Tlajomulco de Zúñiga mayor Salvador Zamora told local media that construction for the line was going to start in mid-2022 and that the project’s cost was reduced from 13bn pesos to 10bn pesos. 

Following a meeting with other authorities to discuss these details, the mayor also said that half of the project’s capex will come from the private sector, while 3bn pesos will be allocated by development bank Banobras and the rest by Jalisco state. 

The line will be built at ground level and parallel to an existing freight rail line that is concessioned to Ferromex. 

The company agreed almost a year ago to cede part of its rights-of-way for the project and assist in the supervision, according to a collaboration agreement between Ferromex and the national infrastructure, communications and transportations ministry (SICT).  

Mi Macro Periférico BRT

After starting works in November 2019, Alfaro inaugurated the Mi Macro Periférico BRT at the end of January. 

The corridor, branded as Mexico’s biggest, runs 42km around the 60km Anillo Periférico Manuel Gómez Morín beltway, serves 42 stations and links to light rail line No. 3 and line No. 1. It connects four districts of Guadalajara. 

In a statement, the local government said the total investment was 8.9bn pesos. Some 7.2bn pesos went to infrastructure alone, while the rest was for rolling stock, according to minister Zamora. 

Although the project was completed in just two years and two months, Zamora acknowledged a few delays due to the pandemic, which hindered key material deliveries such as cement and steel, in addition to forcing a months-long construction sector shutdown. 

But, “we continued working, not at the same pace that we would have wanted under normal conditions, but we didn't stop,” he said, adding that the original 2019 plan entailed 19km of paving for six lanes in one direction, but in the end 42km were paved. 

According to the Jalisco government, 7,560t of steel and 292,000m2 of concrete were used to build the corridor in three stages. 

Stage one focused on paving works for four lanes per direction with hydraulic concrete. Stage two concerned building the 42 stations and stage three involved operational testing and other systems installations, José María Goya, SIOP’s general construction director, told BNamericas. 

“We did over 22km of pavement with hydraulic concrete, plus another 22km that already existed and that had been made in the previous administration, totaling 45km in length,” he said, adding that “afterwards, with the pavement in hydraulic concrete completed, we began with the construction process of the stations.”

Asked about other infrastructure priorities, Zamora said the ministry is carrying out several hospital projects, but also works assigned to it by state ministries such as education, health and transport. 

He also said several public works tenders are underway, although many of those focus on local companies, which were mostly responsible for the construction of the BRT project. 

Every year, SIOP receives 11-13bn pesos. With that budget, the state continued works on the BRT and will aim at continuing others for the light rail line, Arelí De La Torre, the ministry’s general infrastructure management and promotion director, told BNamericas.