By MIKE MEYERS
MEXICO CITY, Mexico, Oct. 28, 2000 (Star Tribune Company) — Antonio Torres knows the dark underside of Mexico City.
With the help of a Minnesota company, Torres has gotten to the bottom of a major problem in this city of 26 million people.
He's digging much-needed sewers.
Torres, a civil engineer with a Mexico City firm called Microtunel, has spent the past six years in charge of sewer projects using a technology never before employed in his country.
Instead of digging trenches — and, in the process, disrupting traffic and business in one of the world's most crowded cities — Torres follows the example of groundhogs. He burrows.
Using tunnel cutters made in Brownsdale, Minn., by Akkerman Inc., Torres can install sewer lines under the feet of tens of thousands of Mexico City residents without them ever knowing he was there.
In a field used to train mounted police, Torres stores and maintains a wide array of tunneling augers, up to 8 feet in diameter.
It's a quiet time for Torres and his team of workers in October. A new president of Mexico, Vicente Fox, was elected to office last summer but won't be inaugurated until Dec. 1.
Fox prevailed over the candidate of the Mexican party, which has been in power for 70 years. Until Fox takes office, the outgoing Zedillo administration has all but stopped government spending on projects that will be finished in the term of the new president.
Torres and his fellow Microtunel employees are about to start a vacation that will last until December.
The economics of tunneling ensure that the technology has a future in Mexico — and that the small Minnesota company that supplies it has one as well, Torres said.
The sandy soil of Mexico City, a lakebed that was drained and transformed into a metropolis during the past 600 years, makes traditional trench-cutting cumbersome and expensive.
With traditional methods, soil must be removed and dumped somewhere. The sides of a trench must be shored up to keep it from collapsing. Clay must be imported from distances of 50 kilometers.
But Akkerman's digging equipment allows pipes to be shoved into tunnels as soon as they're cut. The dirt is compacted on the site, so very little must be moved.
"We are four to five times faster than the past method and only use 20 percent as much energy," Torres said.
Mexico now accounts for 15 percent of Akkerman's sales. "While it's not a huge number, it's a large part of our business," said Maynard Akkerman, president of the company. He was part of a trade mission to Mexico that Gov. Jesse Ventura led last week to promote Minnesota products.
Akkerman's story is like that of many small firms that have benefited quietly from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
At a trade show in 1994, Akkerman met Torres, who showed a lot of interest in the tunneling equipment. He didn't show any cash, however.
Taking a chance, Akkerman shipped some tunneling gear to Torres — getting the equipment across a border where tariffs and other constraints made this type of deal unlikely before NAFTA.
"The opportunity in Mexico, just in Mexico City, is huge," Akkerman said. "It's the size of the greater Twin Cities, and has 10 times the population.
"They still have open sewers running," he said. "What sewers are in place are badly in need of repair."
Akkerman said that one more development is working in favor of his company and the firm that employs Torres.
"In the last six weeks, a proclamation by Mexico City was declared, saying any future pipe laying would be performed with trenchless techniques," Akkerman said.
"They don't want a backhoe tearing up the land if they don't have to," he said.
Torres said he sees another reason for optimism.
Politicians courting voters have discovered that providing the city with more and better sewers is popular.
A few weeks ago, as Mexico City put the finishing touches on a storm sewer dug by Microtunel, the mayor of Mexico City showed up to hold a press conference. She attracted a flock of photographers and reporters.
The mayor wanted to take credit for spending public money to relieve flooding and making a path for the pipe in a way that didn't disturb local residents or businesses, Torres said.
In Mexico City, figuratively if not literally, politicians dig sewers. For Torres and Akkerman, that's great news.
Mike Meyers can be contacted at mailto:[email protected]
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