C.J. Schexnayder The Miraflores Lake between the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks, site of dry excavation. The progress on the third-lane expansion project for the Panama Canal accelerated this week as officials announced the request for proposal for a dry excavation element of the work. The current contract up for bid includes the excavation, removal and disposal of 8 million cubic meters of material roughly adjacent to Miraflores Lake on the Pacific side of the canal. The work is the third of four contracts needed to create a 6.7 km link between the existing navigational channel at the entrance to
Odebrecht Construtora Norberto Odebrecht is the largest engineering and construction company in Latin America and a major player internationally. The Brazilian firm, founded by Norberto Odebrecht in 1944, is now present in 20 countries across four continents. The construction firm saw $5 billion in gross revenue last year, a 42% increase over 2006. The company’s international divisions accounted for almost 70% of its revenue, much of which came from other Latin American countries. “Everyone’s backlog is growing at an incredible rate.” — Marcelo Odebrecht, construction head at Construtora Norberto Odebrecht Marcelo Odebrecht, the 39-year-old grandson of the founder, has run
Odebrecht The construction firm saw $5 billion in gross revenues last year — a 42 percent increase over 2006. (The parent holding company, Odebrecht SA, which includes the petrochemical firm Braskem recorded $17.7 billion in gross revenues in 2007) Although the company continues to have a strong presence in Brazil, its international divisions accounted for almost 70 percent of its revenues and a large portion of that is in other Latin American countries. Marcelo Odebrecht, the 39-year-old grandson of the company’s founder, has run the construction arm since 2002. Before then, he was part of the team responsible for the
The motto of the Brazilian city of São Paulo translates as “I am not led, I lead,” but on the streets of the sprawling metropolis it has become increasingly hard to get anywhere at all. The population of greater São Paulo is nearing 20 million residents, making it the seventh-largest metropolitan area in the world. The increasing population and boom in business has overloaded the city’s transportation infrastructure, making relatively short jaunts into nightmares of endurance. More than 6 million vehicles clogged the city’s streets last year, making movement through major routes and popular side streets almost impossible at peak
+ click to enlarge C.J. Schexnayder / ENR Last month, Brazil shed its status as a developing nation. On June 16, financial rating services elevated the country’s long-term risk level to investment grade. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, speaking at the country’s BOVESPA stock exchange, said, “Brazil is no longer a colony. It is a developed nation.” There is considerable evidence to back his boast. After decades of boom and bust, Brazil has witnessed phenomenal growth since 2000. The primary force is surging commodity prices. The currency is strong, employment is robust, and, after a five-year period of listless
+ click to enlarge C.J. Schexnayder / ENR C.J. Schexnayder / ENR San Antonio Dam’s site favors run-of-river design. The Madeira River is a wide, shallow, muddy waterway wending through Brazil’s far western state of Rondônia. It is here, on the largest tributary of the mighty Amazon River not far from the border with Bolivia, where Brazil has staked its electrical future. Large-scale hydroelectric work stalled in Brazil in the early 1990s, but now a pair of dam projects in the initial stages of construction and valued at $10.5 billion mark the first step toward meeting the country’s 21st-century energy
On June 1, 2001, apagão, the Portuguese word for “blackout,” became part of the vernacular in Brazil. In order to avoid a collapse of the national electricity grid, the government issued an order to slash the country’s energy consumption by a fifth. Related Links: Explosive Growth Sparks Brazil’s Booming Infrastructure Boom Bursting at the Seams, São Paulo Overhauls Undeveloped Interior Is Focus of Brazil’s Hydro Plans Brazil’s Largest Contractor Looks at the Region Q&A with Marcelo Odebrecht, President of Construtora Norberto Odebrecht SA There was no other option due to the severe lack of capacity and the subsequent effect on
. High-altitude roadbuilding requires number of adjustments for prep and paving. The Nevada Colque Cruz in the Peruvian Andes is breathtaking. The views of the glacier-clad summit are sublime, but more than 16,000 feet above the sea the scant oxygen in the frigid air means even small movements leave a person gasping. It is a brutal place to build a road. The work zone crosses about 35 miles of one of the highest reaches of the $1.3-billion InterOceanic Highway project now being built across Brazil and southern Peru. When completed in 2010, the highway will create a 3,100-mile paved connection
Cliff Schexnayder / ENR A shielded TBM would be trapped, experts warned. In the mountains of Peru a tunnel-boring machine named “Pacha Mama” is grinding through the heart of the Andes under rock as deep as 6,890 ft. It is carving away at a 20.2-kilometer-long tunnel through the South American Continental Divide to deliver water to arid coastal farmland. Even though the 5-meter-dia, unshielded Robbins gripper TBM is tunneling through one of the lowest reaches of the Andes, it is still one of the deepest tunneling projects in the world. The Gotthard Base tunnel in Switzerland, with 7,588.6 ft of
