Mexico City, Mexico - President Enrique Pena Nieto is poised to announce a new, larger airport for Mexico City that would open in 2018.

People with direct knowledge of the plan have said that the project would initially include at least three runways - one more than the current Benito Juarez International - as part of an effort to end the persistent delays at Latin America’s busiest hub. The sources, which asked not to be identified because details aren’t public, said the project may be unveiled today during President Pena Nieto’s "State of the Nation" speech.

The construction plan is being spurred by congestion at Benito Juarez International, which led all Latin American airports in takeoffs and landings and handled a record 31.5 million passengers last year. The plan would cap months of deliberations on how to ease air-traffic congestion in the capital and, with an estimated government investment of $9.2 billion, will probably be the biggest public-works effort of Pena Nieto's six-year term.

"The airport is urgent," said Bernardo Velez, an analyst at brokerage Corporativo GBM in Mexico City. "It’s very positive that it would only take four years. That’s very quick."

The site is within a few miles of Benito Juarez International, east of Mexico City’s center and eventually would force the closing of the existing airport. The land between Mexico City and the nearby city of Texcoco would have room for expansion, and the runways eventually may double to six.

The project has languished until now as the 48-year-old Pena Nieto focused on opening up the oil and gas industry to more private investment, boosting competition among telecommunications companies, and overhauling the nation’s education system. The 2018 target date would be Pena Nieto’s last year in office.

ICA, Mexico’s largest construction company, and Grupo Carso, which is controlled by billionaire Carlos Slim, are among nine Mexican companies set to present a joint bid to build the new airport, said Angel Macias, executive vice president of the Mexican Construction Industry Chamber.

After months of planning, Mexico abandoned an attempt to build a $3 billion airport near the location of the proposed new facility in 2002 when farmers seeking to protect their land staged machete-wielding demonstrations.