The army will spend nearly 22 million pesos (about 1.1 million US dollars) for a statue at the entrance to the new airport in Mexico City (AIFA)
The 10-metre, 200-tonne cast bronze figure of revolutionary General Felipe Ángeles, after whom the airport is named, will stand on a roundabout connecting the roads leading to the passenger terminal.
It will be made by sculptor Edysa Ponzanelli, who has a track record of creating government-sponsored sculptures, such as singer Juan Gabriel in Acapulco and ex-president Miguel Alemán on the President’s Causeway at the former presidential residence. Los Pinos.
The contract for the sculpture lists a completion date of March 9, 2022, shortly before AIFA’s planned inauguration on March 21.
The contract also states that the sculpture will have a five-year warranty during which any unreasonable damage must be repaired. Ponzanelli is also due to perform a free first service in 2022, including a structural analysis and inspection for rust and deterioration. The artist will also provide training to clean his surface.
The AIFA, which is being built by the military at Santa Lucía Air Base, will have an initial capacity of 20 million passengers a year, but it could eventually accommodate up to 80 million. In addition to the airport, the military is also building a maintenance base, hotel and terminal for private jet travelers as well as rail and road connections to the facility. The Ministry of Finance estimated the total cost at around 85 billion pesos (about US$4.27 billion).
The airport is located about 45 kilometers north of downtown Mexico City and it was confirmed to be two-thirds complete during the president’s press conference last week. It’s part of a plan to reduce pressure on Mexico City airport, which was used by 50.3 million passengers in 2019, making it the busiest in Latin America. The federal government is also modernizing the AICM and the airport in Toluca, Mexico.
The airport projects replace the canceled and partially built airport of Texcoco, which was intended to serve the capital. The president abandoned construction in 2018 on the grounds that the project was corrupt, overpriced, unnecessary and built on sinking land.
Meanwhile, another artistic effort for AIFA – the airport logo – was widely criticized when it was released in April. The logo featured the somewhat obscured letters AIFA, an airplane, a runway, a control tower and even a mammoth in recognition of the large number of mammoth bones that have been found at the site. Their discovery also led to the decision to build a gigantic museum in the new airport.
With reports from El Universal
