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The emissary project in Punta Yegüas
makes
the first page in Uruguay’s news media
The underwater emissary that is currently
being executed in Montevideo was visited
by city’s mayor, Daniel Martínez, and by
Juan José Taccone, the representative of
the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)
in Uruguay. Both of them toured the project
accompanied by a group of technicians
working for the companies involved in the
construction. According to Martínez “all
the west and the central-north part of the
city will have an emissary that will make it
possible to evacuate, after treatment, all the
water to a point where the ocean currents
will drive it away from the coast thereby
minimising the environmental impact”.
The 2,105 metres of the underwater
emissary will be built with high-density
polyethylene. Each pipe, 12 metres long
and 62 millimetres thick will weigh three
tons. The pipes were transported by land
from Chile. Detonation work is currently in
progress on the coast of Punta Yegüas to
build the “controlled water zone”, the site
where the pipe sections will be introduced
into the river.
During the visit, FCC Aqualia’s Country
Manager in Uruguay, Ángel Pulido,
described the process by which the pipes
are installed towards the river which implies
that each of the pipes will form various
phases measuring between 250 and 300
metres: “A machine performs the welding
by means of thermo fusion, the ballasts are
installed, and the work progresses to the
next phase. When completed, a clamp is
placed and the pressure is tested. Once
everything is under control, a vessel drags
the pipe to the river and the anchorage
process begins. We want to anchor the first
section before the start of Tourism Week to
get a good start according to the timetable,
although there would be no problem if we
do this later. The fact is that we will not be
able to anchor the pipes whenever we want
since this depends on the climate”, Pulido
explained.
One of the most important sanitation
projects in the city’s history
The 47 million US dollar project was awarded in 2012 to the Espina & FCC Aqualia
consortium. According to sources in Montevideo’s City Council, “it is one of the
most important sanitation projects in the city’s history”, similar to the Punta Carretas
collector in the Punta Brava area, also in Uruguay.
In the image, news coverage of the tour by
the mayor of Montevideo in the front page of
Uruguay’s leading newspaper.
In the photo above, from left to right: Daniel
Martínez, the mayor of Montevideo; Gabriel
Viñales, managing director of Espina OH; Ángel
Pulido, Country Manager in Uruguay; Jorge Alsina,
Montevideo City Council technical coordinator;
and, Juan José Taccone, IDB representative in
Uruguay.
