Tunnelbuilder Promoting the world's tunnelling industry to a huge qualified audience

View the Spanish Tunnelbuilder website View the Italian Tunnelbuilder website

Archive Search

Chile

Chile, Antofagasta Region - cl/33

Mine

The state-owned company Codelco approved an investment plan of EUR666.7 million in October, 2011 for underground construction at Chuquicamata open pit. Astaldi has been awarded a EUR118 million contract for the construction of the 7.5 km-long main access and the 6.2 km-long ore transport adit, with cross-passages and approximately 3.5 km of emergency and ventilation shafts. Construction starts March 2012, duration 41 months. For more on the project, click here. Visit www.codelco.cl and www.astaldi.com. 06/12.



Permalink

The Austrian Strabag Group (50%) and a local partner (50%) secured the EUR100 million contract to build several tunnels to extend the life of Chuquicamata in the Atacama Desert, the world's largest copper mine, where output fell 40 percent in the first quarter to 60,000 t. Contract duration three years. Visit www.strabag.com. 29/12.



Permalink

Astaldi Group has been awarded a EUR117 million contract for construction of 11 km of tunnels and additional works related to the existing Chuquicamata mining complex. Works will commence in May and have a duration of 26 months. The Corporacion Nacional del Cobre de Chile (CODELCO) envisages an investment plan totalling USD3.8 billion to convert the Chuquicamata mine, currently the largest open-air mine in the world, into an underground mine. Visit www.codelco.cl and www.astaldi.com. 16/13.



Permalink

The Astaldi Group has been awarded by Codelco a new EUR 413 million (US$ 460 million) contract for the extension in Chile of the Chuquicamata Underground Mining Project. Chuquicamata is the world’s largest open-pit mine, and Codelco has a EUR 3.59 bn (US$ 4 billion) investment plan for its transformation into an underground mine. The new contract awarded to Astaldi will mean that they will be involved in the construction of 43 kms  of tunnels, as well as carrying out an additional 165,000 m3 of underground excavations, and executing 4.6 km of vertical excavations. The works will start next September, and will last 51 months. For further information visit www.codelco.cl  and www.astaldi.com. 22/16.



Permalink

Chile, Santiago - cl/32

Expressway

The Chilean Public Works Ministry (MOP) has introduced its preliminary design for two three-lane tunnels stretching 13 km to link Grecia Avenue in the south and El Salto Avenue in the north in the eastern part of Santiago, completing the city's beltway. The project, known as Americo Vespucio Oriente (AVO), will reach 40 m-deep, will cross seven communes and will cost EUR1.3 billion (US$1.9 billion). Chile's public works ministry (MOP) is planning to begin the bidding process by the second quarter of 2012. MOP has prequalified ten consortia to build and operate the highway. Technical bids expected by July, 2013 and concession award by end-2013 with construction starting in 2014. Click here for the map of the planned Vespucio Oriente tollroad. Visit www.mop.cl. 44/11.



Permalink

Chile's public works ministry (MOP) postponed to 31.01.2013 the tender call for the concession of the EUR1.3 billion (US$1.9 billion) Americo Vespucio Oriente (AVO) in Santiago. The two three-lane tunnels stretching 13 km will link Grecia Avenue in the south and El Salto Avenue in the north in the eastern part of Santiago, completing the city's beltway. Contact Luis Diaz at Project Development and Tender Division, Ministry of Public Works, tel +56 22449 6813, e-mail luis.diaz.g@mop.gov.cl. For more click here and visit www.mop.cl. 01/13.



Permalink

OHL Concessions and Sacyr Concessions have submitted the best proposal for the construction and concession of Santiago de Chile's Americo Vespucio Oriente urban highway (AVO), which has a budget of EUR710 million. The project comprises building and operating this 9.3 km urban highway, large sections of which will have three lanes in each direction. Some of the more prominent work among the primary projects on this highway, which will stretch across five Chilean communes (La Reina, Las Condes, Vitacura, Recoleta and Huechuraba), include the tunnel under the San Cristobal hill and Mapocho river, improvements to the pre-existing surface roadways in La Piramide, and two underwater carriageways from the south side of the Centenario bridge to Príncipe de Gales. Visit http://www.mop.cl/Prensa/Paginas/DetalleDestacadas-portadillanoticias.aspx?item=1429 and http://www.ohl.es/plantillas/grid7detalle.aspx?IdF=290&IdL=281&IdC=3850&idM=595&nvl=1&lan=en. 05/14.



Permalink


Abertis has announced that Autopista Central, a subsidiary of the holding group VíasChile has signed a EUR300million contract with the Chilean Ministry of Public Works (MOP). The project involves the construction of the tunnel Lo Ruiz, which will be a twin tube one-way tunnel with each tube 1.5 km long. These will connect territories within the metropolitan area of Santiago de Chile (interchange between the General Velásquez stretch of Autopista Central and Américo Vespucio Norte portion of Santiago ring road). The project will aim to decongest the Metropolitan Area of Santiago de Chile. The works will begin in the first half of 2022 and are expected to last for 40 months.  Autopista Central, a concession that currently manages 62 Km in the North-South axle of Santiago de Chile metropolitan area until 2032, is the toll road with the largest traffic volume in the country and is one of the 6 concessions of Abertis’ portfolio in Chile. As part of this agreement, there will be an extension of 20 months for this concession. Visit https://www.abertis.com/en/press-room/press-releases/1061. 41/21. 



Permalink

Chile, VI Region del Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins - cl/31

Mine

Codelco, the country's national copper company, awarded French consortium Vinci Construction Grands Projets (60%) and Soletanche Bachy (40%) the EUR292 million contract to design and build two 9 km-long parallel tunnels in El Teniente Mine in Chile. Drill/blast will be employed for an average cross section of 65 sq m. The project includes two intermediate access tunnels, totalling 6 km. Work starts in October, 2011 and will take 40 months. Visit www.vinci.com. 39/11.



Permalink

Codelco (Corporacion Nacional del Cobre de Chile) awarded to Astaldi Group the construction (first phase works) of the Recursos Norte Mining Project (El Teniente Division). The value of the contract is EUR 73 million (CLP 53.4 billion), with a possible increase up to a maximum additional amount of EUR 85 million. The works, to be performed in various phases by the end of 2022, are part of the project for the underground development of the El Teniente copper mine, stretching between elevations of 1,500 and 1,900 m in the Andes, 80 km south of Santiago de Chile. The phase-one works involve designing and building 2 tunnels – one for access, the other to transport materials - totalling 5 km in length; additional works are also planned for EUR 42 million, to be activated at the Customer’s request.

 

The phase-two works, valued at EUR 43 million, refer to building an additional 2.6 km of access tunnel. The activities are slated to begin within the first half of 2018. Visit http://www.astaldi.com and https://www.codelco.com. 20/18.

http://www.astaldi.com/en/press-releases/astaldi-new-orders-totalling-eur-193-million-americas 



Permalink

 

Zublin International GmbH Chile SpA secured a EUR113million new two-year contract including, among other things, the development of a 13.4km tunnel system on different levels, 1,503 m of vertical shafts, and other infrastructure work at the El Teniente copper mine, belonging to Corporación Nacional del Cobre (CODELCO) for further information please visit https://www.strabag.com. 22/22. 

 




Permalink

Chile, VI Regií³n del Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins - cl/30

Hydropower

Astaldi has been awarded a contract of USD282 million (Astaldi's share is 95% of it) for the construction of the Chacayes dam, in the valley of the Cachapoal river. The plant will have an output capacity of 106 MW and will entail the construction of more than 6 km of tunnels and a complex water inlet system. Works are expected to be completed within 2011. The owner is Australian group Pacific Hydro. Visit www.astaldi.com and www.pacifichydro.com.auAt present, Pacific Hydro is involved in the development of the Chacayes hydropower plant in the Upper Cachapoal valley, the largest hydroelectric power project presently being carried out in Chile, an initiative of an overall value of more than USD1 billion. Further to the Chacayes dam, the project involves the construction of three additional hydroelectric power plants in the valley for a total output of 555 MW together with the existing Coya and Pangal plants. Nido de Aguilas, jointly with Las Leí±as, will produce 282 MW. Completion of both is expected in 2012. Las Maravillas (78 MW) is scheduled for completion in 2014. Astaldi and Pacific Hydro have already entered into an exclusivity agreement paving the way to the signing of additional contracts during 2009, of a total value of USD600 million. 39/08.



Permalink

Italian infrastructure company Astaldi now has a 27% interest in the Chacayes run-of-river property in jv with owners Pacific Hydro. Construction of the 6 km-long tunnel system by contracting jv Astaldi-Fe Grande will start in January, 2010 using a 6 m-diameter Wirth TBM equipped with PPS navigation. For project information visit tunnelbuilder archive cl/30. Click here for contacts for TBM details, and here for guidance system. For the broader picture visit www.pacifichydro.com.au. 50/09.



Permalink

Chile, Maule Region - cl/29

Hydropower

In April, the board of Endesa Chile approved a USD273 million investment for the construction of the Los Cí³ndores hydroelectric plant in the Andes foothills in the Maule region VII, which will have nominal capacity of 150 MW and an estimated average annual generation of 529 GWh. The plant will use waters stored in Lake Maule which will be channelled through mixed adduction (pipes and tunnels) over some 16 kilometres. Corema, the Maule region environment commission, unanimously approved in mid April the environmental impact assessment (EIA). Endesa Chile, meanwhile, will launch tenders for the plant's works as soon as formal environmental permits are issued. Three contracts for civil works and one for equipment are planned. The project includes a main headrace tunnel, a secondary headrace runnel, on the right bank of the river Maule, and a surge tank. There are also associated works, not subterranean. The plant will be built near the town of San Clemente, 271 km south of Santiago, in the Maule region VII. Water to the plant will be conveyed through approximately 16 km of pipelines and tunnels from the Laguna del Maule, a lake-filled caldera in the Talca province that feeds the Maule river. Construction is due to last 50 months after starting in September 2008. Once the project is commissioned, which is scheduled for late 2012, it is to generate 529 GWh of electricity per year. Visit www.endesa.cl 24/08.



Permalink

Chile, Chacabuco Province - cl/28

Highway

Sociedad Concesionaria Autopista Los Libertadores S.A. was awarded the concession for the construction and operation of the 117 km Santiago-Colina-Los Andes highway under a public tender in 1997, for a term of 28 years. The operator is owned by OHL of Spain. OHL will invest USD101 million in expanding and improving the highway. The Chacabuco tunnel will be doubled and the upgrading of a 19.5 km section. The existing single bore tunnel is 2,050 m in length and the new tunnel may be of the same length, shorter or longer. The 9 m-wide tunnel will carry two lanes. Trasa Ingenierí­a is carrying out a social evaluation study to assess the benefits of the project. This is due to be completed in early May. Then the detailed design will be undertaken. Finally, the construction is expected to be tendered in the fourth quarter of this year. Details regarding the construction method are not available yet. Visit www.ohlconcesiones.cl 14/08.



Permalink

Chile, Region VI - cl/27

Hydropower

Hochtief Construction's Chilean subsidiary, as member of a joint venture with Tecsa in which it holds a 70% share, has signed an engineer, procurement and construction (EPC) contract of approximately EUR175 million for the 155 MW La Confluencia hydropower station, 150 km south of Santiago. The client is Tinguiririca Joint Venture, an electricity operating company made up of the Australian utility Pacific Hydro and SN Power, which is a Norwegian venture of utility Statkraft and the Norfund Power Invest fund. Hochtief will design and build a turnkey powerhouse for two turbines, two river diversions and tunnels with a total length of 19 kilometres in a difficult-to-access mountain region at a height of about 1,100 metres. The scheme is located in the Tinguiririca valley upstream of the La Higuera scheme, which the developers are also building with the same installed capacity and is due to be commissioned late next year. The developers have laid the first stone officially on 24th January. Construction is scheduled to be completed by 2010. Visit www.hochtief-construction.com, www.tecsa.cl and www.snpower.no 05/08.



Permalink

Chile, Quilleco - cl/26

Hydro

Zueblin is building Quilleco's 3.2 km tunnel for Chilean electricity company Colbun. The USD70 million 70 MW run-of-river hydro project is on the Laja river in central-southern Chile's Region VIII. The project is downstream from Colbun's 174 MW Rucue hydro plant. The plant will generate about 464 GWh a year. The 6.6 m-wide 9 m-high horseshoe-shaped tunnel is drilled and blasted from two sides through conglomerates, using two three-boom jumbos, one Atlas Copco and one Tamrock. To date, 200 m has been driven from the exit portal and 50 m from the entrance portal. Support with grouting bolts, welded mesh and shotcrete. Construction will take 28 months and the plant is scheduled to start operations by May 2007. Visit www.atlascopco.com, www.tamrock.sandvik.com and www.zueblin.de 13/05.



Permalink

Chile, Santiago - cl/25

Expressway

The public works ministry has extended to 11th August, 2004 the deadline to submit technical and economic offers for the Americo Vespucio-El Salto-Kennedy expressway's 30-year concession. The economic offers will be opened on 11th September. The USD70 million project entails building a 4.1 km expressway serving Santiago's northern and northeastern suburbs. It will connect the Americo Vespucio beltway in the sector of El Salto in Huenchuraba municipality in the north of the capital with the municipalities of Providencia and Las Condes at El Cerro and Kennedy avenues, respectively. Works will include cutting two 1.1 km parallel tunnels through San Cristí³bal hill.The nine candidates who bought the tender documents are Impregilo; Dragados / Hochtief; OHL's Infraestructura 2000; Marubeni Chile; Bouygues TP; Sacyr Vallehermoso through its concession arm Itinere; Sociedad Ibérica de Construcciones Eléctricas (SICE); Gestadora de Patrimonio; Besalco; and Necso. Building, it is estimated, will begin in June 2005 for opening in 2007. Visit www.concesioneschile.cl and www.moptt.cl 29/04.The public works ministry has awarded consortium San Cristobal Express, including ACS Dragados and Hochtief, the El Salto-Kennedy urban expressway concession. The USD70 million, 4 km project entails building an expressway to connect the Americo Vespucio beltway in the sector of El Salto in the north of Santiago with the municipalities of Providencia and Las Condes at El Cerro and Kennedy avenues, respectively. Works will include a 1.9 km twin tunnel through San Cristobal hill. The concession will run for 32 years. Construction to start in first half of 2005. Visit www.moptt.cl, www.dragados.com and www.hochtief.de 39/04.Indra has been awarded a contract to implement its traffic management, toll and tunnel control systems in the Nororiente highway and in the San Cristobal tunnel in the capital, Santiago de Chile. The Nororiente highway will offer an access/exit for vehicles to and from the north of Chile to alleviate traffic congestion in Ruta 5 Norte and in the Americo Vespucio avenue. The San Cristobal tunnel will substantially improve connections between north and south of Santiago, linking Huechuraba, an industrial and business area in economical growth and Providencia, located in the city centre. Visit www.indra.es and www.tunelsancristobal.cl 07/08.



Permalink

Chile, Aguas Negras - cl/24

Cross-border Road

The national highway directorates of Argentina and Chile have kicked off the tender process for a feasibility study of a traffic tunnel between the two countries. The tunnel will span centre-north Chile's Region IV and Argentina's San Juan province. Six Argentine firms and six Chilean firms were invited to submit bids under a closed tender process. Offers are due next month and a winner will be selected by June. Names were not released. The tunnel would be built at the Aguas Negras border pass, 4,000 m-high in the Andes mountains, while the alternative would entail fully paving the existing road. Results should be ready by year-end. The tunnel's estimated price tag is US$30 million but the final cost will depend on a number of variables such as geotechnical details and whether the tunnel will be three, four or five km-long. If built, the tunnel will be financed on the two countries' US$400 million border crossings and integration corridors programme. The Inter-American Development Bank approved a US$200 million loan for the programme in December 2000, while the Japan Bank for International Cooperation is providing US$120 million and local counterpart funds the remainder. 18/03.According to a preliminary technical study just submitted, the 14 km tunnel between Argentina and Chile will cost over USD250 million. The idea is to finance the project via a concession. The tunnel would guarantee year-round passage between both countries. The current Aguas Negras border pass, 4,000 m-high in the Andes, is subject to closures during the winter. The tunnel is considered as a key link for pushing forward the bi-oceanic corridor between Chile's Region IV port Coquimbo and Brazilian port Porto Alegre. The project would also include an access tunnel which would be used for maintenance and act as an escape route. 23/04.China and Argentina signed on 29th June an agreement in principle for building a 13.9 km tunnel across the Andes on a visit of president Nestor Kirchner to Beijing. The tunnel, which will cross five Argentinian provinces, will be built some 800 m below the present crossing at Aguas Negras Pass in San Juan. The tunnel, which is part of the central bi-oceanic corridor between Porto Alegre in Brazil and Coquimbo in Chile, is designed to shorten considerably the distance between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and boost Argentinian soya and fruit exports to China, permitting and all-weather link by avoiding passage through the Cristo Redendor cross-border tunnel in Mendoza between Argentina and Chile, which is sometimes closed during winter thereby crippling hundreds of trucks on both sides of the Andes. The tunnel's cost estimate reaches USD250 million and it will be constructed by China National Overseas Engineering Corp. and the Fourth Engineering Bureau at an estimated time frame of 68 months once the final agreement is signed. Click ar/20 & cl/24. 29/04.



Permalink

The governments of Argentina and Chile received 23 expressions of interest for the bi-tube 13.9 km-long Agua Negra trans-Andean road tunnel project. The companies are from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Italy, Korea and other countries. The tunnel will link Argentina's San Juan province with Chile's Coquimbo region (region IV). The bilateral body Ebitan will produce a list of pre-qualifiers over the coming weeks for a tender process set to begin next year. Click here for more info on the project and ar/20 and cl/24 for tunnelbuilder archive. Visit

http://www.ebitan.org/ebitan/descargas/resultadoActoApertura.pdf. 45/13.



Permalink


Notice of qualification system, deadline 08.02.2017, for the design and construction of the 13.9km international Agua Negra Pass tunnel. The bidding will take place at the beginning of 2018 and construction will begin between the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019, with an estimated duration of 9 years. Contact EBITAN, attn Enrique Alvarez Jaque, Santiago de Chile, tel 56-2-24493002, email enrique.alvarez@mop.gov.cl. Visit http://www.ebitan.org/descargas/pliegoPrecalificacion.pdf. 02/17.




Permalink

EBITAN announced the 10 consortiums, composed of  29 companies from China, Italy, Spain, Argentina and Chile, pre-qualified for the design and construction of the 13.9km international Agua Negra Pass tunnel: Consortium CRS, including Consortium China Railway Tunnel Group Co Ltd, Benito Roggio e hijos SA, Ingenieria y Construccion Sigdo Koppers SA; Consortium Astaldi SPA, FCC Construccion SA and Rivas SA; Consortium China Railway Construccion CO and Panedile SA; Consortium Power China LTDA and Sacde SA; Consortium CCCC and JCR SA; Consorzio Dragados SA, Technit SA and Besalco SA; Salini Impregilo SpA; Consortium OHL SA, Condotte SpA and Rovella SA; Consortium Strabag, JCC SA and Obras Subterraneas SA Agencia Chile; Consortium SCCM Tunel Agua Negra, including Sacyr Construccion SA, SK Engineerind & Construction Co LTD, CMC and ICM SA.  Contact EBITAN, attn Enrique Alvarez Jaque, Santiago de Chile, tel 56-2-24493002, email enrique.alvarez@mop.gov.cl. Visit http://www.regionbinacional.com/home/10-consorcios-interesados-en-tunel-agua-negra/ and http://www.ebitan.org. 32/17.



Permalink