New Structural Solution for a Railway Viaduct, Mexico

The 3.8-km-long Line B of the Metropolitan rail transit system in Mexico City is an elevated structure, which was constructed in a high seismic area, on soft compressible soil. Due to the poor subsoil conditions, which could endanger the operation of the Metro, a governmental organisation was established with the responsibility of maintaining the structure. After economic and technical analyses, in which different systems were compared, the Mexico City authorities selected the precast prestressed solution. The chosen solution was 50% more economical than the segmented construction solution.