The OHL Group presents the Cubipod at the Encontros de Enxeñaría de Camiños de Galicia
June 12, 2015
The OHL Group has participated in the I edition of Encontros de Enxeñaría de Camiños, Canais e Portos de Galicia arranged by the Official Association of Civil Engineers of Galicia last May, in order to inform the Galician community of the civil engineering tasks being executed in Galicia. During the seminar, OHL presented its R&D&I actions, to specifically include the Cubipod, a new artificial breakwater component to construct the main layer of sloping shelter dykes in ports.
As part of the event, children were able to build their own model Cubipods, to be later exhibited in a small-scale replica of Puerto Exterior Punta Langosteira, in A Coruña. Furthermore, a real Cubipod was presented, weighing 25 tons and 3 meters high, to be colored by the kids and eventually located in the Punta Langosteira harbor wall, undergoing construction.
The Cubipod, internationally patented, has been executed in conjunction with the Polytechnic University of Valencia and offers significant advantages over traditional cubic blocks, to include its great solidity and structural resistance, whilst also reducing any disadvantages by excluding the need for paving and increasing friction with the inside layer. Furthermore, it is easy to manufacture, handle, assembly and store, and entails savings in materials and costs as well as a reduction in the ecological footprint.
Acknowledgements
OHL’s excellence in R&D&I has enabled it to achieve relevant prizes in this field. Thus, at the Geneva International Inventions Fair, the most important fair in the world of its kind, it received a Gold Medal with an honorary mention and the prize to the Best Spanish Invention. In addition to this acknowledgement, it has won the National Innovation Prize (Innovating Public Procurement category) granted to the Málaga Port Authority for use of this technological innovation, and the García-Cabrerizo prize to Spanish inventions.
Cubipod stockpile in breakwater at Langosteira Port. Spain.