After a 10-month hiatus, the Progreso deep-sea port expansion project was revived and made more ambitious and 7.2 times more expensive than in 2021. Even if it comes to fruition, Yucatán would still not be able to receive the largest cruise ship in the world, the Icon of the Seas, which has already arrived in Cozumel in the neighboring state of Quintana Roo, nor the largest container ship in the world, the MSC Irina, which sails in the Mediterranean.
For the second time in three years, the Administration of the National Port System (Asipona) of Progreso requested the environmental permit for the work, which will now have an investment of 2,949 million 656 thousand 246 pesos 91 cents – 96.2% of a millionaire loan – and will be will do for four years, reveals the new Environmental Impact Statement (MIA) that is already being evaluated by the Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) of Mexico.
This means the work would be ready in 2028 if it starts in the remaining month and a half of 2024. But it is most likely that it will begin in 2025 and be finished in 2029 because in 2021 it took Semarnat almost three months to evaluate the MIA and, if that agency gives permission, then the tender will be held to hire the company that will expand the remote terminal.
It also means that the effects will continue for the residents of 82nd Street in Progreso, who have been affected by the construction of the elevated viaduct on 82nd Street (which runs from the 75th, formerly 25th, entrance to the port of height up to the road to Mérida) since June 13, 2023. The viaduct will be completed next December, so dump trucks, machinery, and other vehicles for the expansion of the remote terminal will travel on this bridge. Regardless of this, the new MIA reveals that there is a big bet: that Progreso will receive ships with greater draft like those that arrive in Veracruz, which according to the Federation is the most important commercial port on the Mexican coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
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