Skip to main content

Delays have hit Chile’s Chacao Bridge project

Delays now look likely to affect the construction programme for Chile’s Chacao Bridge project. The US$740 million bridge project, long in planning, has been delayed on previous occasions for a number of reasons. The tolled link will connect Chiloé Island with the Chilean mainland in its Region X once complete. This 2.6km link will become South America’s largest suspension bridge although its opening will reduce journey times considerably over 25-45 minutes taken by the ferries used at present to link with C
August 28, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
Delays now look likely to affect the construction programme for Chile’s Chacao Bridge project. The US$740 million bridge project, long in planning, has been delayed on previous occasions for a number of reasons. The tolled link will connect Chiloé Island with the Chilean mainland in its Region X once complete. This 2.6km link will become South America’s largest suspension bridge although its opening will reduce journey times considerably over 25-45 minutes taken by the ferries used at present to link with Chiloé Island over the Chacao Channel. According to Chile's public works ministry, MOP, has moved back the tender process for the project towards the end of 2013.

The concession should be awarded in early 2014 with construction work itself commencing in 2015 and the structure opening to traffic in 2019. Eight consortia pre-qualified for the tender process. These are: Isei Joint Venture, Constructora Puente Chacao (CPC), 3959 Sacyr Samsung 3220 Parsons Puente Chacao, Consorcio Puelche, China Railwaygroup Limited, 3366 China Road and Bridge Corporation, Consorcio Cai Cai Vilu and Consorcio 1511 OAS-236 Hyundai-5549 Systra-Aas Jakobsenv.

Work on the bridge was original supposed to start in 2007 with its opening planned for 2012. However, a substantial increase in the costs estimated by the project team of designer and contractor showed that the price would exceed the limit imposed by the 968 Chilean Government. The project was cancelled, prompting an outcry from those on the island and was then revived in 2009 as a fall in the cost of steel made it economically feasible once more.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Reunion road project faces delay
    April 24, 2020
    The massive road project on Reunion faces a delay.
  • Peljesac Bridge access roads finished
    November 15, 2021
    The final access road tunnel for Croatia’s Peljesac Bridge is finished.
  • Malaysia tunnel project moving ahead?
    July 11, 2018
    Plans are being made for a new link to connect Malaysia’s Penang Island with the Malaysian mainland. The Consortium Zenith Construction (CZC) won the tender process for the US$1.56 billion Penang Roads and Tunnels project, an integrated infrastructure plan that includes the new undersea tunnel. There are suggestions that a bridge would be a feasible alternative, although the tunnel link looks most likely for the project. The feasibility study for the tunnel should be complete in September 2018. Should the
  • Fast-track Biloxi Bay bridge
    July 18, 2012
    Construction of a bridge destroyed in a hurricane was completed early, and with some added aesthetic benefits Hurricane Katrina, one of the deadliest and costliest natural disasters in US history, made landfall on 29 August, 2005, devastating the Gulf Coast. The US 90 Bridge over Biloxi Bay (connecting the communities of Biloxi and Ocean Springs, Mississippi) was one of many major highway and railroad bridges knocked out of service due to extensive storm damage. The eye of the storm passed 96km west of Bilo