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.