Construction was confined to the six-month-long dry season, and lasted seven years, with 14 contractors placing 105 million cu meters of embankment fill.

The route crosses a coastal flood plain, savannah and tropical forest and required only one major bridge, 2,310 meters long, spanning the Tocantins River at Maraba. Prime contractor Odebrecht used a track welding method pioneered by the French.

Twelve-meter-long rail sections were put through a feeding line, their ends heated to 1,050°C to improve electrical conductibility, then flash-welded together into 396-meter-long strings. Two million ties of indigenous jatoba wood were first dried and then creosoted in a vacuum chamber.

The workforce for the entire Grand Carajas Project—ore processing facilities, rail line and port—peaked at 27,500. Given the remote location, a temporary town for 8,000 workers had to be built. The jobs and amenities proved powerful lures to the region’s poor inhabitants.

To ward off a potential flood of itinerant workers, CVRD improved the existing hamlet of Parauapebas by installing utilities and erecting a hospital, school, administration building and jail.