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.

Road Structures

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Towers of power: California’s Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement
    May 8, 2019
    Challenging ground conditions meant a design rethink - and some engineering firsts - for California’s Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement Project* The Port of Long Beach on Terminal Island south of Los Angeles is the second-busiest container port in the US. It handles around 15% of all imported goods, much of it with Asia. As the Port of Long Beach was growing in importance over the past half century, the 51-year-old Gerald Desmond Bridge has faithfully been delivering thousands of daily commuters to wo
    Read More
  • Consortium constructing challenging route in Chilean capital Santiago?
    January 29, 2014
    The concession package for the US$1.06 billion Américo Vespucio Oriente (AVO) expressway in Santiago, Chile looks set to be awarded to a consortium headed by OHL Concesiones Chile. OHL's proposal of a subsidy close to 20% of the project's cost beat Spanish group Cintra's bid, according to a report from Business News Americas. Of 15 companies that prequalified for the project, only OHL in an alliance with Sacyr Concesiones Chile and Cintra had submitted technical offers for the 40-year concession. Constructi
    Read More
  • PPRS: the positive side of structural failures
    March 27, 2018
    You learn from your failures, not your successes. That was the overall message for delegates during the day-two morning session on the impact of engineering structural failures. These lessons are also too often “painful”, said Anne-Marie Leclerq, deputy minister for infrastructure within the ministry of transport for the Canadian province of Quebec. On September 30, 2006, a span of the six-lane Concorde Bridge in Laval, near Montreal, collapsed crushing to death five people and injuring six. Only recently
    Read More
  • Almost gone: Canada’s old Port Mann Bridge deconstructed
    August 14, 2015
    Three years ago a welder’s cut halved Canada’s old Port Mann Bridge. David Arminas reports from the banks of the Fraser River. By the time this issue of World Highways reaches you, one of Canada’s iconic steel arch bridges will be a shadow of its former self. It’s been a three-year demolition job since the first cut across the deck of the old Port Mann Bridge just outside the city of Vancouver on Canada’s Pacific coast. A new 10-lane 2.2km Port Mann Bridge opened in 2012 (see box). It runs parallel to the o
    Read More

Highlighted Content