The Lagares WWTP, Best Engineering Work in the San Telmo Awards

The Lagares WWTP, in Vigo, has been distinguished as the best engineering work in the XI San Telmo Awards 2019. The award, granted by the Association of Civil Engineers of Galicia, recognizes the innovative and sustainable character of this project, in which OHL participated. The infrastructure is pioneering in Spain by incorporating a hydrolysis system and another biogas energy recovery system, making it the largest plant in Spain for biological treatment with biofiltration technology and one of the largest in Europe. Likewise, its covered structure avoids acoustic and odor contamination, which favors its integration in the urban nucleus in which it is located, respecting and guaranteeing the well-being and quality of life of its inhabitants.

In accordance with the Xunta de Galicia’s pollution reduction program, the Lagares WWTP construction project included the expansion and modernization of the treatment plant, the construction of a new submarine outfall and the development of a new electrical connection. Its hydraulic design admits flows of up to 12m³/s, quadrupling the hydraulic capacity of the old WWTP, and has a treatment potential in terms of pollution of up to 800,000 equivalent inhabitants (horizon year 2042), making it the treatment plant with the highest treatment capacity in Galicia.

In environmental terms, during the development of the works, environmental restoration works have been carried out that have meant the generation of 11,000 m2 of marsh in the land of the old treatment plant, the recreation of a humid forest and the recovery, for public use, of an area in which more than 3,000 specimens of different tree species have been planted.

Other awards

The XI San Telmo Prize joins other recognitions that highlight the quality of the works carried out by OHL in the Lagares plant, such as the Architecture and Rehabilitation Prize of Galicia 2018, awarded by the Regional Ministry of Infrastructure of Galicia, in its 2018 edition; the Great Area of Architecture 2017, awarded by the Official College of Architects of Galicia, or the WEX Global Awards, awarded in 2016 by the English company Water and Energy Exchange, in the category of Water and Energy.

Other OHL works recognized with the San Telmo Prize

This is not the first time that an OHL project has won the San Telmo Award. The works carried out in the Exterior Port of Punta Langosteira, in A Coruña, were recognized in 2013 with this award, also in the category of Best Engineering Work, for their social function and environmental integration, variables that influence an improvement in the quality of life of the inhabitants, and for their excellence in construction in accordance with technical, territorial and construction quality criteria. 

Lagares-Vigo WWTP. Spain.