Skip to main content

Chile’s Chacao Bridge under construction

Construction work on Chile’s Chacao Bridge project is now underway. The 2.75km suspension bridge will connect the Chilean mainland with Chiloe Island. The bridge structure has been designed to flex so that It can cope with severe earthquakes, which present a risk in the area. The project is costing US$700 million to carry out with South Korean company Hyundai heading the construction. Building the link should take around five years with its completion set for 2023, although the work could be finished earlie
March 6, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
Construction work on Chile’s Chacao Bridge project is now underway. The 2.75km suspension bridge will connect the Chilean mainland with Chiloe Island. The bridge structure has been designed to flex so that It can cope with severe earthquakes, which present a risk in the area. The project is costing US$700 million to carry out with South Korean company 236 Hyundai heading the construction. Building the link should take around five years with its completion set for 2023, although the work could be finished earlier if productivity targets are achieved.


The project to build a bridge to link Chiloe Island with mainland Chile has been planned for some time. However an earlier design was rejected as being too costly by the then 968 Chilean Government and any progress was then halted. This present design represents a substantial change from the original plan and the project has also benefited from a different funding package as well as a change in the Chilean Government.

Once the bridge opens to traffic it will replace a ferry service that connects with Chiloe Island at present. Journey times will be reduced from 30-45 minutes at present using the ferry service to just 2-3 minutes across the tolled bridge. The bridge project is intended to boost the economy of Chiloe Island and will help develop tourism in the area.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Transstroy’s ambitions for Sochi 2014 Olympics and beyond
    September 30, 2013
    Igor Pankin is CEO of Transstroy, one of Russia’s largest transport infrastructure construction companies, a part of Oleg Deripaska’s Basic Element group. Created in 1992, the company has completed major construction projects with a combined worth of more than €4 billion (RUB 121 billion) The Olympic motto, ‘Swifter, Higher, Stronger’, is very appropriate for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics – and not just in reference to the action in its stadiums and on its slopes. The city has been transformed from a small
  • South Korea-North Korea highway link?
    May 18, 2015
    An optimistic tone in South Korea is seeing the construction of an expressway connecting Seoul and Munsan. The project is being carried out in a bid to boost trade with North Korea. This is in spite of the current uncertain political situation in North Korea. The expressway will connect South Korean capital Seoul to Munsan, which lies to the south of the Demilitarised Zone bordering North Korea. More private investment can be roped in via the plan to build the expressway. An environmental impact assessment
  • Innovations in formwork aid project completion
    February 14, 2012
    Innovative formwork solutions are helping to get projects completed on or before time, meaning savings in time and money as Patrick smith reports. The use of flexible, modular formwork to create innovative structures out of concrete is helping to increase productivity and thus drive down completion time and costs.
  • Czech bridge sees world formwork debut
    July 23, 2012
    The Czech government is investing heavily in upgrading and modernising the country's top-tier transportation infrastructure. This year alone, building works with a total investment of over E1.6 billion are planned or underway on the Czech motorway and main road network. Completion of the D8 motorway between the Czech capital Prague and Dresden in the east of Germany has a high priority, and as part of this large-scale project, the contracting consortium of SMP and Metrostav is erecting the 585m long Prosmyk