Maya Train Support Pillars Disintegrating in Riviera Maya Underground Rivers, Environmentalists Warn of Collapse Risk

Playa del Carmen, Mexico — Support pillars for the Maya Train in the Riviera Maya are disintegrating inside underground rivers, creating both contamination risks for the region’s freshwater aquifer and potential structural collapse dangers for the federal rail project, environmental groups have documented.

Activists from Sélvame MX discovered the deteriorating pillars during dives earlier this year near the tourist areas of Akumal, Chemuyil, and Xpu-ha. The group found massive cement spills and rust deposits at the bottom of flooded freshwater caves, with some pillars crumbling at the touch.

The affected section is part of the Maya Train’s southern Segment 5, which runs approximately 60 kilometers between Playa del Carmen and Tulum directly above the Ox Bel Ha underground river system, one of the world’s most extensive.

Portuguese company Mota-Engil and Mexican firm Grupo Indi executed construction work on this elevated section, which was specifically designed to avoid damaging the underground rivers after former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador suggested raising the tracks. Most of the peninsula’s rail line runs at ground level or on embankments.

José Urbina Bravo, a diver with Sélvame MX who participated in the recent dives, described finding columns that disintegrate when touched. “We could see how with a finger it crumbles apart. It falls apart with touch,” Urbina Bravo said. “These samples clearly show us large and extremely dangerous failures.”

Construction on Segment 5 South began in summer 2022 after federal authorities disregarded injunctions granted by a Yucatán judge. The elevated bridges supported by pillars immediately sparked controversy among environmentalists because the piling method damaged the karst soil, which contains rich freshwater reserves in this part of the country.

Since 2023, activists have reported contamination of the Maya aquifer, where water has turned from crystal clear to completely murky. Urbina Bravo explained that during 2024 inspections, “we detected that there was a large cement spill, as we detected in Garra de Jaguar, as we detected in Ocho Balas, as was detected in several places, but here we detected it underwater.”

Videos from the environmentalists’ latest dive show the path of solidified cement leaks. “When I managed to get to where the columns were, I realized that one of these columns had completely burst, spilling tons of cement inside the system,” Urbina Bravo said. “We took the record, made the complaint, and they committed to cleaning and repairing this. Then recently we did the control dive to see what they had done… that column is garbage and wasn’t repaired. That one and another behind it that’s also burst.”

The federal government is currently promoting the Maya Train for cargo transport using these same tracks, constructing a multimodal terminal in Cancún with an investment of 7.7 billion pesos. This comes amid evidence of low passenger traffic at various stations, including those in major tourist locations like Cancún and the Riviera Maya.

“A collapse with passengers would be a tragedy, especially with all the warnings that were made, but the ecological impact would be great,” Urbina Bravo warned. “What’s worrying is that they insist on putting a cargo train… If a collapse occurs there, then we’re left without an aquifer. It would be a tragedy that would truly end the aquifer in this zone.”

Sélvame MX plans to conduct water quality studies at additional points where they suspect similar fractures are occurring. The activists are pursuing legal actions, including complaints about potential environmental crimes, though they acknowledge they lack access to most of the approximately 15,000 pillars embedded in the ground.