A Spanish contractor is picking up the pieces of a failed Brazilian contract to build the São Paulo metro’s sixth line, “Orange,” under the region’s largest public-private partnership. The company inherited the 15.3-kilometer tunnel project, which had been mothballed since 2016, along with Chinese-built tunnel-boring machines from a maker that is now out of business.
Madrid-based Acciona S.A., is mobilizing work along the Orange line’s 9.4-meter-dia. twin-track, single-bore tunnel that will connect 15 new underground stations from Vila Brasilândia in the north, to São Joaquim in the south. With stations as deep as 69 m, depth of construction and the need to fast-track work on multiple fronts are major challenges, says project director Lucio Matteucci.