President of Mexico Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced the start of construction works at the Santa Lucia airport, in a victory for his government after overcoming the legal obstacles presented by the opposition.
During his usual morning press conference, López Obrador confirmed that his administration has the resources to deliver the project in full in 2021.
'It took time to start the work in Saint Lucia. There were 140 new legal protections, a nonsense because there were many interests created around this work,' the president explained.
Under the guidance of the Army, the work will solve the problem of the saturation of Mexico City Airport and save more than 100 billion pesos (more than 5.2 million dollars) compared to that of Texcoco, the President noted.
In his speech, Lopez Obrador reiterated that the work in Texcoco, which began under the government of Enrique Peña Nieto, 'was the symbol of corruption' and acknowledged that canceling it 'cost us criticism, but the general interest of the nation must always come before personal interests.'
He stressed that as well as the construction of the new air terminal, works would be undertaken to 'repair the damage that was caused by deliberately closing or reducing the importance of the Toluca airport.'
The new airport project includes two runways of around five kilometers each, as well as an air base, a control tower, a terminal with 33 positions, taxiways and a service building.
The Santa Lucia area will see an access road to link it to the Mexican outer circuit, as well as a fast train with connection to the current International Airport of the capital city. ■
A large-scale blocking pattern over North America is leading to a series of upper level disturbances tracking across the southern tier and off the East Coast this weekend, while a robust ridge of high pressure forms over the North Central U.S, and southern Canada.