The Riachuelo environmental restoration project is the excavation of a nearly 12 km long outfall tunnel, under the River Plate in Argentina. Lot 3 of the megaproject was devised by the government to clean up the Matanza-Riachuelo Basin in Buenos Aires. The next phase will be even more challenging as it will require the application of a “Made in Italy” prototype that is being shipped to the Argentinian capital. From the port of Genoa, Salini Impregilo has ordered two separate shipments of the disassembled parts of the prototype riser jacking equipment, which has been built by Italian civil engineering company Palmieri.  The two ships, which were loaded in late October, will arrive in Buenos Aires at the end of November.

Once assembled, the equipment will weigh 200 tons and will be 70 m long, 3.6 m high and 3.5 m wide. The equipment will be used along the last 1.5 km of the tunnel. Where it will install a series of steel tubes that will rise up criss crossing a series of soft ground formations until reaching the bottom of the River Plate. Once the project is fully completed, the sub-fluvial tunnel will allow for the diffusion of wastewater treated and will improve the conditions of the Riachuelo River.

Fisia Italimpianti part of the Salini Impregilo Group recently won the contract for Lot 2, which is the construction of the plant. The project is part of a broader plan financed by the World Bank for the sustainable development of the Matanza–Riachuelo Basin and cleaning up the waters which are considered some of the most polluted in the world.

For further information click here for a video, and ar/24 for the tunnelbuilder archive. Also visit https://www.aysa.com.ar/sistema_riachuelo#avance, https://www.palmierigroup.com/ and https://www.salini-impregilo.com/. 46/19.