With the presence of President Santiago Peña and members of his government, including the Minister of Public Works and Communications (MOPC), Claudia Centurión, Paraguay inaugurated last Sunday, 3/3, the emblematic Heroes del Chaco Bridge, a cable-stayed structure that connects the capital, Asunción, to the Chaco’i region. The project dates back to 2013, but construction only began in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, employing around 1,500 workers in the region. Once completed, the work should receive around 10,000 vehicles per day, relieving traffic congestion currently on the Remanso bridge, opened in 1978.

The bridge stretches 603 meters over the Paraguay River and has two pillars of 300 meters each with two sails supported by 23 stays on each side. It is the first bridge with four lanes for vehicle circulation, a pedestrian path and a cycle path. Together with access roads and viaducts, the complex totals 7 kilometers from Costanera Norte to its junction with the Remanso-Puerto Falcón section.

In addition to standing out as a new icon in the landscape of Asunción, the bridge also represents a great leap for Paraguayan engineering and for the companies of the Consórcio Unión, formed by CDD Construcciones and Constructora Heisecke. “This work symbolizes a transcendental step, it is the first bridge built by a Paraguayan company, which knew how to rise to the challenge we face in the country. Today we have absolutely nothing to envy an international company, nothing”, said president Santiago Peña.

IEME Brasil and LAEDE had a small but important participation in the work, by carrying out all static and dynamic tests to assess the safety of the structure and allow it to be opened to traffic. It was the first dynamic test of its kind carried out in Paraguay, a decision that shows the seriousness of the current Paraguayan government in relation to its enterprises and infrastructure projects.

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Puente Héroes del Chaco – Photo: IEME Brasil

Puente Héroes del Chaco – Photo: IEME Brasil

Puente Héroes del Chaco – Photo: IEME Brasil

Puente Héroes del Chaco – Photo: IEME Brasil

Puente Héroes del Chaco – Photo: BNamericas

Puente Héroes del Chaco – Photo: Creative Commons licenses by-sa 40 Overkill53

IEME / LAEDE technical team installing sensors on the Ponte del Chaco. Photo: Shirley Juliani Reproduction

IEME / LAEDE technical team carrying out the load test on the Ponte del Chaco. Photo: Shirley Juliani Reproduction

IEME / LAEDE technical team installing sensors on the Ponte del Chaco. Photo: Shirley Juliani Reproduction

 

 

The city of São Paulo is literally under construction. Through the Municipal Department of Urban Infrastructure (Siurb), the City of São Paulo carries out the largest program for the recovery and maintenance of bridges and viaducts in the history of the city. In 2023 alone, the interventions have an approved contribution of 650 million reais and the expectation is to complete 300 works by the end of 2024. This volume is unprecedented in the city and is part of the Special Works of Art Maintenance Management Program ( OAE), created in 2018.

IEME Brasil

IEME Brasil has participated in the program since 2020, providing inspection, testing and structural analysis services. The contract covers the Domingos de Moraes, João Beiçola, Olavo Fontoura, 31 de Março, Carlos de Campos and Orlando Murgel viaducts, as well as the Anhembi, Estaiada Governador Orestes Quercia, Arujá, Senador José Ermírio de Moraes and Aurélio Batista Road Complex bridges.

A significant portion of these OAEs, identified as priorities, are currently undergoing rehabilitation and IEME remains involved with some of them, which demonstrated the need for reinforcements and more in-depth studies, with a view to adapting structures to increased traffic or due to problems of maintenance. Complementary reinforcement projects are currently under development and will be made available to the City Hall in the coming weeks.

Recently, IEME Brasil signed a new contract with Siurb, in a consortium with Alphageos, to carry out a series of special inspections, tests and structural verifications. Among the structures to be examined are the Milton Leão, Júlio de Mesquita Filho 2, Itinguçu, Pedroso (Bispo Tid Hernandes), Mie Ken, Shuei Uetsuka and Jaceguai viaducts.

Photo: IEME Brasil / Filipe Viveiros
Governador Orestes Quércia cable-stayed bridge , São Paulo, in June 2021, during inspection service, with one of its lanes interdicted for the safety of technicians

About the Program

São Paulo has hundreds of bridges, viaducts and footbridges, most of them under the responsibility of the City Hall, which is responsible for maintaining and conserving them. With the aim of establishing a permanent culture of routine inspections and preventive maintenance, promoting integrity and extending the useful life of structures, Siurb published Ordinance No. 40/2018, creating the Special Works of Art Maintenance Management Group.

Linked directly to the Secretary’s Office, the Group is responsible for establishing a program of routine and periodic inspections to subsidize the planning, design and actions of repairs, renovations and reinforcements of the OAE, and must verify, among other pertinent aspects, the situation pavement, sidewalk, vegetation, infiltrations, overhaul of structures (infra, meso and superstructure), undermining, support equipment, expansion joints, guardrails, drainage and cleaning.

Thus began the Maintenance Management Program for Special Engineering Works in the City of São Paulo, which follows the guidelines of the ABNT NBR 9452 standard, with annual visual inspections, special inspections every five or eight years and emergency inspections. if there is an emergency demand. The program allows available resources to be used more efficiently, hierarchizing and prioritizing maintenance needs.

Learn more at: https://www.capital.sp.gov.br/noticia/prefeitura-investe-r-650-milhoes-em-2023-no-maior-programa-de-recuperacao-e-manutencao-de-pontes-e-viadutos-da-historia

Technicians from IEME Brasil and LAEDE are in the field to carry out detailed inspection services in 16 special works of art (bridges or viaducts) and 7 tunnels of the Structural Integrity Management subordinated to the Directorate of Base Metals Atlântico Sul, of Vale, in Parauapebas (PA). The OAE and tunnels are located in the territories of Mineração Onça Puma, Mina do Salobo, Mina do Sossego and Porto São Luiz, in the States of Pará and Maranhão.

The contract began in August 2022 and is expected to end in September 2024. IEME estimates that approximately 30% of the service has already been completed.

Detailed inspection services for OAE and tunnels follow ABNT NBR 9452 – Inspection of Bridges, Viaducts, Concrete Walkways – Procedures and include the following tests:

• Verification of corrosion potential
• Checking the electrical resistivity of concrete
• Sclerometry (NBR-7584) – By tested area
• Chloride ion content
• Sulphate content
• RAA (Alkali Aggregate Reaction)
• Weld penetrant liquid
• Ultrasound
• Infrared thermography
• Pacometry
• Concrete permeability
• Concrete strength – core extraction
• Extensometry test
• Mapping with aerometry (drone)
• Mapping using 3D scanning

The inspection results in detailed reports containing all the reports of the technological tests carried out, informing the state of conservation and any pathologies identified, reporting points of improvement, drawings with the repairs to be made, if the inspection defines it, and the classification grade of each asset , as required by the standard.

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Carrying out the load test on the Itacaiúnas Bridge, using loaded trucks

Top and bottom view of the Itacaiúnas Bridge

Extraction of the specimen with the CP extracted