This 5-km section of roadway provides safe and reliable passage for vehicles traveling between the coastal city of Iquique and an important hilltop industrial and urban area—two places previously separated by a significant altitude difference. To create a roadway with steep slopes of up to 9%, crews used a variety of means for excavation and reinforcement, including blasting. They also added more than 4 km of mechanically stabilized earth walls up to 19 m high and placed active anchors, metal meshes and shotcrete.

Since completion, the project has benefited the area’s 1 million people not only through improved transit, but also through more than $100 million in direct economic impact. The project team, which included companies from Spain, Chile, the U.S. and Mexico, attained a nearly spotless safety record during 1.75 million work hours by employing daily tool box talks, weekly safety moments for all staff and establishing secure and permanent communication channels throughout the site. Quality control teams were assembled to analyze materials, processes and activities on a daily basis. Contractors, subs and suppliers followed U.S. and Chilean international standards, allowing the team to immediately resolve more than 50 nonconformities.

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