OHLA begins construction of the Forensic Medical Service in Chile

November 29, 2021

OHLA has started construction work on the new Medical Legal Service (SML) in Chile, a 24,000-square-meter complex distributed in six buildings with a budget of more than 53 million euros (47 billion pesos), the largest investment carried out by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights in the country.

The complex, which will be built on 185 isolation and seismic sliding devices and 225 parking spaces, will house the different areas that make up the SML and that until now operated in separate offices: Thanatology, Clinic, Mental Health, Laboratories, the Codis (combined DNA index system) and the administrative area.

The new facilities will allow the more than 600 officials working at the SML to more efficiently perform more than 100,000 medico-legal procedures per year, which are essential for the proper functioning of the justice system, in first-class spaces, with better conditions, more technology and the highest technical standards. These services will benefit a population of approximately seven million inhabitants.

The new SML is part of the modernization plan of the forensic institution in Chile.  It will be located between the Justice Center and the High Security Prison in the so-called “judicial district”, next to the Justice Center (also built and operated by OHLA), the High Security Prison, the former Penitentiary and the Santiago Uno Preventive Detention Center.