Coatzacoalcos Underwater Tunnel

With just one two-lane local bridge connecting the cities of Coatzacoalcos and Villa de Allende, a third and higher-capacity river crossing was needed.

[6] During the six-year term of Javier Duarte as Governor of Veracruz, the Superior Auditor of the Federation (Auditoría Superior de la Federación or ASF), the federal agency responsible for conducting audits, as well as its state counterpart (ORFIS), signaled the project each year for diversion of resources, and it warned that the project failed to comply with state planning policies and was being built below standards.

[6] Nationally, the tunnel was generating comparisons to another project marked by delays and cost increases, Line 12 of the Mexico City Metro.

[8] During construction, workers uncovered artifacts from Olmec settlements in Villa de Allende dating from 1200 to 400 BCE and in smaller amounts on the Coatzacoalcos side of the project.

[10] The Coatzacoalcos Underwater Tunnel opened with a formal dedication on April 27, 2017, at a cost of 5.398 billion pesos — a 256% increase over the original budget.

[5] Speaking at the dedication, Governor Miguel Ángel Yunes Linares suggested that the tunnel be known as the Túnel Puerto México, in honor of one of the former names of Coatzacoalcos.

In Villa Allende, residents blocked the access road to the tunnel and threatened to sabotage the event if insurers did not visit homes in the area that they claimed were damaged during construction.