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Work advancing
at the Chucas
hydroelectric plant in Costa Rica
The Chucas hydroelectric plant is a 50
MW project being executed between the
San José and Alajuela provinces in Costa
Rica. In this project, being built by an FCC
Construcción America and FCC Construc-
ción consortium, water from Río Grande de
Tárcoles is diverted towards compacted
concrete gravity dam with a regulation ca-
pacity of 14.7 m
3
/hour and equipped with a
drainage structure.
Strict safety measures have been imple-
mented at this project which commenced
in February 2014. So far, there have been
no accidents requiring sick leave, according
to Mauricio González, the manager of FCC
Construcción in Costa Rica, in the 800,000
hours of work, so far.
Safety measures
González explained that the safety mea-
sures implemented also included talks on
safety of more than one hour for new em-
ployees at the project; daily instructions t
all personnel, and one supervisor at each
work site.
It is also important to point out that FCC
has implemented a prevention manage-
ment system based on OSHAS 18001 re-
quisites which has been audited by SGS in
Panama and will also be audited shortly in
Costa Rica.
The project has generated 250 direct and
150 indirect jobs and is expected to be deli-
vered in June 2015, according to González.
Main work involved
The main work involved in this project in-
cludes:
•
The construction of a 54 metre high,
230 metre long dam with a volume of
190,000 m
3
.
•
The construction of a spillway within
the dam.
•
A discharge structure comprising two
radial gates for the effluent lines, two
flat gates, and a rolling bridge with a
30 ton capacity.
•
Access roads including the construc-
tion of a new bridge over the dam.
Projects in Costa Rica
FCC is currently involved in major pro-
jects in Costa Rica, including: the en-
largement and revamping of National
Route 1, Cañas-Liberia section; the
design and construction of 18 bridges
in National Route 1, Cañas-Liberia Sec-
tion, and the hangar at the International
Juan Santamaría Airport.