{"id":10521,"date":"2024-04-10T09:20:47","date_gmt":"2024-04-10T09:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=10521"},"modified":"2024-04-10T09:20:47","modified_gmt":"2024-04-10T09:20:47","slug":"mexico-citys-metro-system-is-sinking-fast-yours-could-be-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=10521","title":{"rendered":"Mexico City\u2019s Metro System Is Sinking Fast. Yours Could Be Next"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Solano\u2010Rojas and his colleagues found subsidence in the area of an overpass near the Olivos station, which collapsed in 2021 while a Metro train was traveling over it. \u201cWe did part of this analysis before 2021, and we detected that that area was having differential displacements,\u201d says Solano\u2010Rojas. \u201cWe were like, \u2018Oh, yeah, it looks like something could be happening here in the future.\u2019 We think that it’s not a coincidence that we found this.\u201d Solano\u2010Rojas was careful to say that the potential contribution of subsidence to the disaster would require further evaluation, and official investigations have cited construction errors<\/a> and do not mention subsidence.<\/p>\n

For this study, the researchers looked at the Metro infrastructure aboveground, not the subway segments\u2014basically, the parts of the system they could verify visually. (The photo below shows the differential subsidence of columns supporting an overpass.) But by providing the system\u2019s operators with information on how quickly its infrastructure might be subsiding, their work can hopefully inform interventions. Engineers can add material underneath railways, for instance, to restore lost elevation. Bolstering subways, though, could be much more challenging. \u201cWe don’t have a concrete solution for that,\u201d says Shirzaei. \u201cIn most cases, when that happens, it just results in shutting down the project and trying to open a new lane.\u201d<\/p>\n

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