Reaching Los Teques in 13 Minutes Metro Los Teques, which will link El Tambor to Las Adjuntas on Line 2 of the Caracas metro, is a new 9.5 km rail line, whereof 6.2 km in tunnel, with no intermediate stations. From Caracas, commuters will reach Los Teques, Miranda state's capital, in only 13 minutes. Metro Los Teques is scheduled to open on 22nd October, 2006. The line is designed to significantly alleviate traffic congestion on the Panamericana road since approximately 20% of the current users will travel on the new line. The owner is C.A. Metro Los Teques, a company controlled by the Miranda state (40%), the Caracas metro company (40%) and the Guaicupuro municipality (20%). The line is built by consortium Metro Los Teques (CMLT) formed by Vinccler, Odebrecht and Astaldi. To date, civil works are 83% completed.The project includes five bored tunnels with bored diameter of 9 metres, driven using the drill and blast method and hydraulic hammers: Corral de Piedras (1,195 m), La Linea (233 m), Rio Cristal (167 m), Carrizalito (3,576 m), California (838 m) and Pequeño California (167 m) and two cut-and-cover tunnels in El Tambor (727 m) and Las Adjuntas (105 m). All tunnels are single tubes built by Astaldi, except the Corral de Piedras tunnel constructed by Dycvensa (a Dragados affiliate). The Corral de Piedras tunnel was the last completed in February. Visit www.dycvensa.com.ve The main machinery used is three Cat excavators (438-C, 428-B and Cat 330-BL) and two Atlas Copco Boomer H188 jumbos. Visit www.atlascopco.com and www.cat.com. For shotcreting, a fleet of five pumps has been operated (2 Putzmeister, 2 Scamac and 1 CIFA). Visit www.putzmeister.es, www.scamac.it and www.cifa.comThere are also access adits and escapes (460 m of tunnel in total) in case of emergency, to comply with the international standards. Read E-News Weekly 10/2004, 3/2004, 45/2003 & 46/2002. Click ve/16. Visit www.metrolosteques.com.ve and www.astaldilosteques.com 13/06.