The San Telmo 2013 award for best civil engineering work in Galicia conferred on the Punta Langosteira Outer Port, constructed jointly with OHL

The Galician College of Civil Engineers (CICCP) has selected the new installations at Punta Langosteira Outer Port in La Coruña, in whose construction the OHL Group has participated through its subsidiary SATO, to receive the San Telmo 2013 award for best civil engineering work.

The board in charge of selecting the Punta Langosteira Outer Port as the winner of this year’s edition underscored the project’s social implications and its environmental integration, which are variables that engender the improvement of local quality of life as a result of excellence in construction by virtue of fulfilling quality criteria in technique, territory and construction.

The work comprises the construction of a sloped dike spanning approximately 3,400 m, whose variable depth reaches as deep as 40 m in some sections. This dike was completed with a spur breakwater stretching 390 m in length for berthing oil tankers and a 215m-long counterdike.

Construction of the second breakwater begins

The award coincides with the recent June 5th start of construction of a second breakwater, which falls within the scope of the first stage of the counterdike at the outer port in La Coruña and will become part of the current structure.

This will likewise encompass the construction of an additional 32.1 ha of flat ground to supplement the existing land area, thus attaining 182 ha by completion of the work at the end of 2013. These installations will form part of the port facilities while protecting the water intake at the Sabón thermal power station.

The second breakwater will lie parallel with the first and span 350 m. The breakwater itself will be constructed from almost 1,000 units of cubipods, a tendered construction element designed by SATO in collaboration with the Institute of Technology in Valencia, representing a substantially innovative step in the construction of seawall dikes and structures for protecting ports.

The inherent benefits of the Cubipod’s traditional cubic block features include ruggedness and simplicity in incorporation, in addition to their enhanced properties to prevent setting while increasing friction with the upper layer. In view of their simplicity of production, handling, laying and storing, the cubipods are particularly salient in that they substantially reduce costs and minimize the ecologic footprint.

The second stage of the project will commence in 2014 with the expansion of the counterdike to reach a total length of 1,350 m and a surface of 250 ha, thus making a broad stretch of land available to operators for operations, logistics and industrial activities.