foster + partners and FR-EE’s mexico city airport to continue construction (for now) despite threats

construction of the new mexico city international airport, designed by foster + partners and FR-EE (fernando romero enterprise) is set to continue despite reported threats from the country‘s president-elect of a possible cancellation. andres manuel lopez obrador, also known as AMLO, outlined concerns over the $13 billion airport due to possible corruption and wasteful spending during his election campaign.

a conglomerate comprising foster + partners, FR-EE (fernando romero enterprise), and NACO (netherlands airport consultants) won the international architectural competition in 2014. the trio have designed what could become one of the world’s largest airports with up to six runways and a 560,000-square-meter terminal (read more).

AMLO, who the election by a landslide on sunday has since softened his tone, according to abel hibert, AMLO’s economic adviser. hibert attended a planning meeting with the president-elect and about 100 aides from the transition team on tuesday where three possible outcomes were laid out.

‘AMLO mentioned three possibilities on tuesday‘, bloomberg reports. ‘auctioning the airport to the private sector, moving it to an alternative site (which would mean losses on construction that’s already happened), or going ahead with the current plan. the possibility of referendum on the project, which had caused concern among investors, didn’t come up at the meeting, hibert said.‘

it won’t be until after AMLO has been inaugurated on 1 december 2018 that the true fate of the airport will be sealed. if completed the scheme would be mexico‘s largest-ever infrastructure project and would see the construction of a compact single terminal which would inherently use less materials and energy than a cluster of buildings. various firm’s proposals for the sustainable new airport were unveiled in june 2014, including teodoro gonzález de león and TAX, led by alberto kalach, as well as a design by sordo madaleno arquitectos and pascall+watson.