Urban Viaducts at Section 1 of the “Tren Maya” railway

The new Urban Viaducts at the Section 1 of the “Tren Maya” railway are located in southern Mexico, at the municipalities of Tenosique (State of Tabasco) and Candelaria and Escárcega (State of Campeche).

The structural solution for the urban viaducts' deck is made of a reinforced concrete slab with a pair of “I” main steel girders. The girders have vertical bracing trusses, in order to reduce the distortion of the cross‐section, and a lower horizontal bracing truss, to close the torsional circuit. Steel diaphragms are located at the supports to transfer vertical and horizontals forces to the column.

Viaducts consist of a succession of simply supported 40 m spans. The lengths of the viaducts are: 2920 m Tenosique, 990 m Candelaria and 1080 m Escárcega.

The viaducts are located in a zone of high seismicity hazard, so the columns' design has been developed by a displacement‐capacity analysis. As a result, they consist of a single shaft on which rests a pier cap, both of reinforced concrete.

This typology has been chosen because of the benefits of its construction process, which allows the execution of the spans to be independent. The steel structure of the deck also allows to reduce its mass, what helps to reduce the dimensions of the substructure.