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.
read more
monday, may 24, 2010
El Califa
There is a Platonic ideal for the local lunch joint. It's a place you'll find anywhere in the world, jam packed every day of the week by folks who know what the regional cuisine should taste like because they grew up with their grandmother cooking it.If you ever happen to wind up in Puerto Maldonado, Peru that restaurant is El Califa. For almost three decades the Portocarrero family has cranked out the best lunch in town featuring the jungle cuisine done in the best blue collar tradition. This place is so working class they also sell tractors on the side, just ask 'em.
At first glance, it ain't much; just a plain wooden structure at the end of one of the town's many dirt streets that only stands out because the paintjob is relatively fresh. The decor inside is similar ; a wide open room with about two dozen tables, each with a glass top and the menu underneath. But the clues are there. Among the usual tourism promo posters that adorn the walls is an aging portrait of the restaurant's founders - the hallmark of the great lunch joint. read more
wednesday, may 19, 2010
The Los Olmos Project
The Los Olmos project in Northern Peru is one of the most challenging engineering efforts in the world. The $247 million undertaking is designed to bring water from the Western slopes of the Andes to the dry Pacific coastland through a 20-kilometer-long tunnel.Two years ago I penned an article examining Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht's effort to build the tunnel, the second deepest being excavated in the world. It was slated for completion last month.
The delay has been caused by rock bursts which have been buffeting the tunnel boring machine boring the tunnel over the past year. One massive one that struck on April 29 has indefinitely halted work after damaging a key part of the machine.
My story on the difficulties the project is facing, Series of Rock-Bursts Throws Peruvian Tunnel Job Offtrack. read more
thursday, april 29, 2010
The Belo Monte Dam
The 11.2 GW Belo Monte hydroelectric project on the Xingu River in the Brazilian Amazon is one of the most ambitious energy generation projects being undertaken on the planet - and one of the most controversial.On April 20, a nine-company consortium, Norte Energia, won the right to build the $11 billion project. The group is led by Compania Hidro Eletrica do Sao Francisco (CHESF), a unit of state-run Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras SA.
The dam, a run-of-river scheme designed to buffer the environmental impact of the project, is expected to take five years to build and will be the third-largest hydro facility in the world when completed.
Opposition to the scheme has been strong since it was initially proposed in the mid-1980s. As Brazil's electricity regulating agency Aneel awarded the job, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the agency's Brasilia headquarters and vowed to fight the project. read more
wednesday, march 31, 2010
Lima's El Metropolitano
Peru's capital city of Lima is set to unveil its $538-million integrated urban bus system commonly known as El Metropolitano in April.The system, based on Bogota, Colombia's successful TransMileneo system, will feature a 26-kilometer primary bus line built in the center lanes of the city's main north-south arterial roads, with a fleet of 522 natural-gas-powered buses. Officials say it will be able to handle up to 700,000 passengers daily when completely operational at the end of may.
The centerpiece of the project is an $18 million central terminal constructed beneath the Promenade of Naval Heroes in Central Lima designed to handle 110,000 passengers a day.
My story, Growing Transit System in Lima, Peru Bringing Order to 'Chaos', is in this week's Engineering News-Record. In addition, it features a slideshow of images from the project.
wednesday, march 31, 2010
South America Power Transmission
Last year, Brazil was hit by a massive blackout that plunged two-thirds of the country into darkness for hours. In March, Chile suffered a power outage that left almost 80 percent of the population without power for hours.Both incidents occurred when a localized failure in the power grid led to a chain reaction that caused a widespread failure in the country's transmission system. They serve as a warning for many countries in the region that have let the power grids languish while infrastructure development has been focused elsewhere.
Brazil and Peru are examples of two countries that have poured billions of dollars into the electric power grid infrastructure in an effort to stave off blackouts in the coming years. My story, In South America, Trouble on the Line, is in this week's Engineering News-Record.
wednesday, march 03, 2010
The Chile Earthquake
At 3:34 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 27, Chile was struck by one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded. The 8.8 magnitude temblor lasted for three minutes but devastated the infrastructure of the Andean nation.The death toll stands at almost 800 although many more remain missing. More than 500,000 structures were seriously damaged and an estimated 2 million Chileans were affected by the disaster.
Despite the devastation, the aftermath of the earthquake is being seen as a testament to the country's preparedness for such a catastrophic event.
My cover story, Chiles Quake Damage Mitigated by Past Lessons, is in this week's Engineering News-Record examines how Chile has learned from past quakes to improve it's readiness for such powerful temblors. In addition, my article Chile Holds Strong Recovery Hopes examines why experts expect the country to rebound relatively quickly from the disaster.
wednesday, march 03, 2010
The Panama Canal
A joint U.S.-European group has presented the low bid to analyze the options for a vehicular crossing at the Atlantic entrance of the Panama Canal.San Francisco-based URS Corp. and the Danish firm COWI A/S submitted a bid of $895,000 - the lowest of five tendered - to examine the possibilities of a permanent crossing at the historic waterway's Atlantic entrance that will allow uninterrupted traffic on that side of the isthmus.
The crossing is needed since the construction of new locks on the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal required for the $5.2 billion Third Lane Expansion project will make vehicular traffic across the isthmus on the existing roadway impossible. read more
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 highqway 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.
wednesday, february 03, 2010
Ruta del Sol
In 2005, Colombia undertook a massive $770 million infrastructure renewal program aimed at paving more than 3,000 kilometers of the country's roadways.That effort was bolstered even further recently by the awarding of contracts to build a 1,000-kilometer highway connecting the capital of Bogota and the Caribbean coast.
Two of the three sections for the $2.6 billion Ruta del Sol (Highway of the Sun, in Spanish) were awarded to a pair of multinational consortiums who will build and operate the highway. The final contract is scheduled to be awarded this summer.
My story on the road effort, Highway Goal: Colombia's Gem to the Ocean, is in this week's issue of Engineering News-Record.
friday, january 22, 2010
Nightwatching
The particular epiphany that opened the doors of understanding about cinema to me seems almost prosaic to the point of insignificance when articulated directly: everything in a film is there for a reason.Well, isn't it obvious? Yes, of course it is. Which might be why I overlooked it for so very long. The import of this simple idea is transformed into something breathtakingly profound when it is unshackled from the stultifying inertia of plot and allowed to blossom in the vast fields of possibility the medium can lay claim to.
Peter Greenaway's 2007 film Nightwatching takes this conceit and runs with it. On one level it is a retelling of the story of behind the creation of Rembrandt van Rijn's masterpiece, The Night Watch. On another it's a dissertation on how a work of art must be understood within the context it was created in. read more
thursday, january 21, 2010
The Nicaragua Canal
The Panama Canal has become cemented in the public mind as the trans-oceanic waterway across the Central American isthmus. But the route chosen for the historic canal almost went through nearby Nicaragua.In fact, a stamp depicting a smoking volcano is believed to have been the deciding factor swaying the US Senate to vote for the route through Panama in 1902. The success of that enterprise quelled calls for the northern alternate for almost a century.
Recently, Nicaragua renewed the push for a canal route through it's territory as a plausible alternative to the Panamanian waterway. Officials have redoubled efforts to find financing for the ambitious $18 billion proposal.
My most recent post for my ENR.com blog, A man, a plan, a canal... Nicaragua? looks at the interesting history of this alternate canal route and the recent efforts to renew it.