Connection of all of the slabs of level -1 in the construction of Américo Vespucio Oriente, one of Latin America’s largest urban road infrastructure projects, with participation by OHLA
September 21, 2021
OHLA has reached a new milestone in the construction project of the Américo Vespucio Expressway, in which it is participating through CVO (Constructora Vespucio Oriente): the completion of all of the slabs of level -1, which required 4,580 m of trenches and tunnel under Avenida Américo Vespucio, between the districts of Vitacura, Las Condes and La Reina. The project, which is already more than 80% complete, is scheduled to be finished in the first half of 2022.
Part of the more than 3,500 people who are working on this project, in shifts 24 hours a day, executed a total of 206 post-tensioned slabs – many of which were voided slabs – with different geometries and widths ranging between 15. 5 m and 27.0 m, with thicknesses between 0.70 m and 1.50 m. Construction of the slabs required 10,469,000 kg of passive steel, 1,053,000 kg of active steel and 88,965 m3 of H40 concrete. 65% of the concrete was supplied by the construction consortium’s own plants.
These underground slabs, which separate the two levels of traffic in the north-south direction, were used in trench and hybrid tunnel sections. They are supported on piles that were previously executed manually, from inside the tunnel in the case of the hybrid tunnel, and from the surface in the case of the trenches. One notable aspect is the camber of some of the sections, with the transversal slope of some sections reaching 8%.
The Américo Vespucio Oriente Expressway will be 9.3 km long and will have three lanes in each direction for most of its length. Its runs through five districts – La Reina, Las Condes, Vitacura, Recoleta and Huechuraba – and includes a tunnel under the Cerro San Cristóbal and the Mapocho River. The infrastructure will reduce travel time in the eastern sector of Santiago de Chile and improve the level of service of this structurally important road, which is currently heavily saturated.
Four decades of presence in Chile
OHLA began operations in Chile in the 1980s. Since then, it has maintained a permanent presence in the country. It recently completed the hybrid section in this project, the Central Crime Laboratory of Chile and the Curicó Hospital. It is currently executing the extension of Metro Line 3, sanitation works for Codelco at the El Teniente mine, the Central Forensic Medical Service, the Viña PDI and the third lanes on Route 78, as well as the concession for the Santiago Justice Center.
