Américo Vespucio Oriente I Highway (AVO I)
Américo Vespucio Oriente I, one of the largest road infrastructure projects in Chile, is an example of sustainability and innovation. The scope of the project includes the construction of a 9.1 km urban highway, which runs through five districts —La Reina, Las Condes, Vitacura, Recoleta and Huechuraba— in Santiago de Chile and features three lanes in each direction most of its route. The infrastructure delivers travel time savings of more than 40 minutes between different points in eastern Santiago.
The main technical actions include a 1.4 km viaduct (El Salto) built over two highways in operation, 2.1 km of tunnel beneath the Mapocho River and Cerro San Cristóbal, and 5.5 km of double-deck tunnel, with one tunnel superimposed over the other.
The initiative has also incorporated 164,000 m² of landscaping and environmental mitigation measures, such as the construction of 7 km of bicycle lanes and accessible walkways, a skatepark, and two recycling clean points. Other notable environmental actions include the recycling of more than 2.3 million kg of steel and the reuse of 1,800,000 tonnes of excavated material.
In terms of innovation, the project has developed for the first time a hybrid tunnel solution —through the execution of a first level using conventional tunnelling methods and a second lower level built from the upper one— and has implemented the BIM system during the engineering and construction phases.