The Tijuana City Council’s Urban Administration Department (DAU) has once again placed closure seals on a housing development by the company SM8 Desarrollos, located in the Madero Sur neighborhood, after damage was reported in three adjacent homes, one of which was flagged yellow for structural risk.
According to municipal authorities, the project, called Sideways Cacho, which includes the construction of 90 apartments, lacks the required building permit.
The director of Civil Protection in Tijuana, José Luis Jiménez González, reported that the closure was carried out because the construction lacked a specific construction plan, a mandatory document that outlines internal brigades, emergency protocols, signage, evacuation routes, and safety measures for workers.
During the site inspection, he stated that cracks associated with recent work were identified, which corresponded only to damage to masonry without affecting the structural elements of the neighboring house.
According to local residents, this is not the first time the construction project has been shut down. Last October, authorities also suspended work due to various irregularities.
The project, according to documents from the Tijuana City Council, was authorized in August 2024 following a request from SM8 Desarrollos to build on a property owned by Banco Covalto.
The work is being carried out on Laredo Street, where three homes have been affected so far, one of which has already been flagged by the Civil Protection Directorate as being at risk of collapse.
Enriqueta Barragán, one of the affected residents, stated that the work included anchors to her home without her consent and without prior notification to the residents.
“We started to feel the house shaking, and we heard noises and crashes in the floor. We started investigating. I thought they were small anchors, but no, they cover my entire property; they measure 14 meters.” “Because of the 90-degree excavations, their wall collapsed, and part of mine did too.”
Given the persistent damage, she explained that City Hall personnel placed closure seals for the first time on October 29.
However, the seals were later removed to allow the company to carry out remediation work on a wall that was about to collapse at one of the neighboring houses, after which the construction company continued with the work.
Given the persistent damage, the authorities placed the closure seals again this Wednesday morning.
Leticia González Pérez, another of the affected neighbors, requested the permanent suspension of the project and sanctions for the technical managers.
“I would like them to stop the work and for the engineer David Mascareño Jiménez, from Geocimentaciones de Tijuana, to be sanctioned because he operated with an expired license; and the architect Armando Curiel Ortega as well, because he is in charge of the project with the City Hall.”
She added that at the beginning of In April, an explosion occurred inside his home after a drainage pipe ruptured, allegedly due to the anchors installed on all four sides of the property.
He added that at the end of September he filed a complaint for damage to private property with the State Attorney General’s Office, arguing that the damage has caused a decrease in the value of his assets.
Source: elimparcial
