saturday, june 19, 2010
The Billinghurst Bridge
The Billinghurst Bridge over the Madre de Dios River in the Southern Peruvian Amazon is slated to be finished in December of this year - almost three decades from when the project was inaugurated.The $25.71 million effort to build the 722-meter-long span was begun in 1978 and the parts for the steel suspension bridge were fabricated in Austria and sent to Peru for assembly. But financial and social upheaval in the country put the project on hold.
Today, the consortium building the Interoceanic Highway, Conirsa, has undertaken the effort to build the bridge and plans to have it finished in time for the road's official opening in December.
My story on the bridge construction, "Peru Project Spans One River, Three Decades" is in this week's issue of Engineering News-Record and a slideshow of images is on the magazine's website as well.
wednesday, march 03, 2010
The Inambari Hydroelectric Project
The momentum behind a proposed 2,000MW hydroelectric facility in the Peruvian Amazon is gaining as Brazilian interests continue to back the effort.The Brazilian consortium behind the project, Empresa de Generacion Electrica Amazonas Sur S.A.C. (EGASUR), says construction of the dam on the Inambari river could begin by the end of this year and be completed by 2014.
If approved by Peru's Ministry of Mines and Energy the consortium would be required to replace more than 100 kilometers of the InterOceanic highway slated for completion later this year.
My story, Brazil Backs $4-Billion Peruvian Hydropower Project, is in this week's issue of Engineering News-Record.
thursday, may 21, 2009
Points South: Peruvian Roads Lead to Tourism
The InterOceanic Highway project is a $1.3 billion effort to complete a paved road through Southern Peru that is the final link in a mid-South American ocean-to-ocean roadway. Two consortiums led by Brazilian construction giants Odebrecht and Carmargo Correa have undertaken the effort.Bus services and private tours are booming and Cusco’s tourism board now estimates that as many as 60,000 Brazilian tourists arrive each year via the new roadway. That’s probably a bit optimistic but the fact tourist transits are increasing is obvious.
My post about the topic Peruvian Roads Lead to Tourism is over at Points South, my blog on Latin American construction at ENR.com.
wednesday, may 28, 2008
The InterOceanic Highway
The sheer elevation of the Peruvian Andes makes the challenge of building a highway across them a formidable one. Paving a road at elevations touching 16,000 feet means looking for unique solutions and that's precisely the tack being taken by a company trying to complete the first trans-oceanic highway across the breadth of South America.Conirsa, a consortium led by Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht, is working on two of the five components of the $1.3 billion InterOceanic Highway project through Southern Peru, including one across the high Andes south of Cusco. The extreme elevation means drastically cold temperatures which cut heavily into the available time to pave each day - halving it in most cases.
The solution is a unique machine dubbed "The Dragon" which heats the road surface prior to paving and a huge heated tent that keeps the prepared asphalt warm enough in the frigid mountain air to be useable. Last year these two measures recouped more than $1 million for the consortium. read more
tuesday, september 04, 2007
The Interoceanic Highway
Last week Peru awarded the final two contracts of the 2,500 kilometer Interoceanic Highway project to a par of consortia comprised of Peruvian contractors. Consorcio Interocánica and Concesionaria del Sur will handle the repair of more than 1,000 kilometers of existing paved roads that lead to three costal cities.The two contracts are valued at $285 million. Work on the three contracts that include the building new road across the difficult mountain and jungle terrain of Southern Peru began two years ago. Peruvian officials say the final pair of contracts, although almost a year behind schedule, will be completed by the 2009 deadline for the entire project.
My story on the issue, Final Two Sections Awarded For Transandean Highway, is on ENR.com. A sidebar looking at progress repairing roads in the wake of the 8.0 magnitude earthquake that struck three weeks ago, After Quake, Crews Scramble To Fix PanAm Highway, is online as well. read more
thursday, july 05, 2007
Interoceanic Highway
After the rainy season eased off earlier this year, construction crews went back to work on the $1.3 billion Interoceanic Highway in Southern Peru.Turns out, things have come quite a ways since my visit to the project last year.
Conirsa, the Odebrecht-led consortium building two sections of the road totaling more than 700 kilometers, was able to pave more than 100 kilometers before the weather turned bad - but now they are facing new obstacles.
The roadway in the deep jungle is succeptible to cracking due to the lack of aggrigate. The company says the cracking isn't a thread to the road's stability but it has had to implement various measures to retard the process including sealing the fissures with an asphalt/polymer prior to pavement. read more
monday, january 08, 2007
InterOceanic Highway
The InterOceanic Highway project is a $1.3 billion effort to complete a paved road through Southern Peru that is the final link in a mid-South American ocean-to-ocean roadway.Two consortiums led by Brazilian construction giants Odebrecht and Carmargo Correa have undertaken the effort which is slated for completion in 2009.
This road crosses the Peruvian Andes reaching elevations in excess of 14,500 feet and winds through the dense Amazonian rainforest where annual rainfall can exceed 10 feet.
Last year I toured the three sections under construction and wrote a series of stories about the project for Engineering News-Record that are available in this week's issue of the magazine.
The first, South American Project Stretches Ocean to Ocean, is an overview of the entire project and examines the obstacles the engineers are facing to complete it. read more
wednesday, february 01, 2006
Peruvian Highways
One key problem for many South American countries has been the lack of investment into infrastructure. A key element of that has been the neglect of the highway systems. Peru and other countries who have enjoyed a recent economic boom have been working to address that particular issue with some success.Peru has more than 80,000 kilometers of roadway, but less than 15 percent is paved. Worse, many of the hardtop portions lack for maintenance while only 8 percent of rural roadways are regularly usable. The country is currently working on $2 billion in ongoing and planned road projects that are critical with the possibility of a free trade agreement with the United States.
Engineering News-Record has an interview I conducted with Nestor Palacios, Peru’s deputy minister of transportation discussing this issue.
monday, october 10, 2005
InterOceanic Highway
Daniel Villar is the head of Odebrecht Peru's ambitious InterOceanic Highway project that, when completed in 2009 will create the first paved roadway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in South America.The more than 700 kilometers of roadway in Southern Peru that is being completely rebuilt and paved crosses some of the most difficult geography in Peru - from mountains more than 4,700 meters in elevation to jungle wilderness that is completely impassable during the torrential rains of summer.
Odebrect Peru heads the consortium ConIrsa that is building two of the most difficult portions of the job. I recently sat down with Villar and discussed a number of the obstacles facing the Brazilian construction giant as it undertakes its portion of the $900 million project.
read more
sunday, august 28, 2005
InterOceanic Highway
Since the 1920s efforts to build an InterOceanic highway across Peru and Brazil have met with failure and disappointment. This month history was made when Peru awarded the first bids to complete the highway through some of the most difficult geography on the continent.It is an almost $900 million job that, when completed in 2009, will finally create a road connection between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in South America. Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht will lead the consortium building two of the most difficult stretches of the road - over some of the highest mountains and into some of the densest jungle.
This week I have a story in Engineering News-Record outlining the project and what the undertaking will mean for the companies involved.