Basic HTML Version
Aqualia
celebrates the inauguration
of the El Caracol
pumping station
in Mexico
José Luis Luege; José Ramón Ardavín, deputy general manager for Drinking Water,
Drainage, and Sanitation of CONAGUA; Alberto Pérez-Jácome, managing director of Hermés
Construcción; and Javier Santiago, managing director of Aqualia, third on the right.
View of one of the pumping sumps
at the El Caracol pumping station.
Last November, former Mexican President,
Felipe Calderón, inaugurated the El Cara-
col pumping station in the State of Ecate-
pec. The project was executed by Aqualia
Infrastructures in a consortium with Grupo
Hermes de Construcción.
The plant’s output is 40 m3/sec (cubic
meters per second), averaging 8m
3
/sec of
waste water and up to 32m
3
/sec during
the rainy season. Built on top of the tunnel
cylinders and equipped with 20 submergi-
ble pumps each with a capacity of 2m
3
/sec,
the equipment is unique in its category. The
main equipment also includes 12 power
generators each with a generation capacity
of 3100 kw. The total generation capacity at
the plant is 37 MW.
The most important benefit of this new
plant is that it will mitigate the risk of floo-
ding in the event of any failure at the Central
Outlet Tunnel. It will also protect one of the
vital infrastructures in the area, such as the
international airport of Mexico City and the
subway installations. Sustainability is also
a key issue and the discharges of waste
water will be channelled to the Atononilco
waste water treatment plant to prevent the
rivers from becoming contaminated and di-
minish
Once the West Discharge Tunnel is com-
pleted, the pumping station will make it
possible to maintain the flow required from
the major discharge channel by the Chico-
nautla Irrigation District and absorb surplus
stormwater.
Aqualia Infraestructuras has consolidated
its positioning in Mexico as one of the lea-
ding companies specialising in the design
and construction of water projects, such
as the Aqueduct II in Querétaro, already in
operations, the El Realito Aqueduct, cu-
rrently under construction, the Salamanca
waste water treatment station, currently in
the testing stage, and the upgrading of the
Los Berros drinking water treatment plant.