The construction of the new Pamplona-Cúcuta highway in Colombia is delivering an important economic boost for the north of the country. With this project, the Ministry of Public Works of Colombia intends to solve traffic problems in the border area between Colombia and Venezuela, as well as for the northeast of the country.
The new Pamplona-Cúcuta highway is one of the most important infrastructure projects that Colombia’s National Infrastructure Agency (ANI) put out to tender in recent years. The project was awarded to the Unión Vial Río Pamplonita Concessionaire, a company that belongs to the Spanish group Sacyr. At present the work is around 86% complete.
The project forms part of Colombia’s massive infrastructure programme, which is known as the Fourth Generation Concessions. The main objective of this particular project is to improve the road connection between the city of Pamplona and Cúcuta.
A further aspect to the project is that it will connect with the Bucaramanga-Pamplona highway, which will improve connectivity between central Colombia and the neighbouring nation, Venezuela.
The aim of the work will be to rehabilitate the existing highway as well as to carry out the construction of a second carriageway. The project will provide a total of 50km of new road (between dual carriageway and single carriageway) and the rehabilitation of 72km of the existing route between Pamplona and Betania (Los Patios).
The project requires extensive work due to the terrain and will include the construction of 23 vehicular bridges as well as three tunnels.
The highway begins at an altitude of 2,586m above sea level, in the city of Pamplona, until it reaches an altitude of 410m. Once complete, the new road infrastructure will benefit five municipalities: Pamplona, Pamplonita, Bochalema, Chinácota and Los Patios.
This area covers a population of approximately one million inhabitants and will bring a huge boost to the region, saving travel time for users travelling through the area. The journey time will be lowered by approximately 20 minutes for heavy vehicles and 35 minutes for light vehicles, which will help to boost trade in terms of efficiency, functionality and productivity.
The Pamplona - Cúcuta corridor is located in the middle of the eastern mountain range of Colombia, mainly in the valley of the Pamplonita river. The alignment runs through an area of complex geological conditions that have required extremely large excavations, cuts and fills.
According to the reports of the National Infrastructure Agency (ANI), during the different construction phases of this project, social and economic development was generated for the community, as more than 70% of the direct and indirect workers came from this region of the country.
This project was carried out through the award of a concession contract based on the scheme of Public Private Associations (PPP) between the State and the company with an investment of €590 million.
The bridges
In total, 23 bridges with a total length of 1,900m were built. However, two of these structures posed greater engineering challenges due to the topographical complexity of the location in which each was constructed.
The first is a bridge that features a curved geometric design and situated in the Los Adioses sector, itself located in the municipality of Pamplona. This bridge crosses the Pamplonita river.
With a length of 170m and a deck width of 10.3m, it has been erected using the successive cantilevers method. The contractor made use of three advance trolleys that worked simultaneously. The bridge’s highest point was 33m.
A total of 3,700m3 of concrete and 840tonnes of steel were used in the construction of the bridge.
The second, named bridge 501, features a total length of 224m. This is a structure made up of seven spans, measuring 22, 41, 28, 41, 31, 31 and 30m respectively. These are connected by reinforced concrete slabs that rest on four precast concrete beams.
This structure is located on the Iscalá ravine and provides access to the municipality of Chinácota. The structure sits on six intermediate piles that are sunk to depths varying between 13m and 27m.
For the construction of the bridges where it was more convenient to use precast beams, Sacyr developed the RPGC-21 launching gantry to solve their assembly problems.
It it worth considering that this project included the construction of 22 continuous beam bridges featuring from 1-5 individual spans, each of which was located in a steep valley.
To cope with the requirements of the bridge erection work, the launching gantry has a 90tonne capacity and a maximum 48m length between spans, which allows it to install beams up to 43m long.
The use of this launching gantry presented a quick and effective solution for bridge erection. Conventional launcher devices would not have been as effective in terms of cost or time.
As the launching gantry is not self-launching, the assembly and disassembly process had to be carried out with the use of auxiliary cranes. This reduced the assembly times from two weeks to just two days. By assembling all the beams, the construction company was able to offset the entire cost of the equipment, which also allowed the launching gantry to be used for other projects. This has considerably reduced the cost and time required for the assembly of the beams.
Loading and transporting the bridge components from one site to another was also easier. The various structural elements are lightweight and modular and do not require special manoeuvring to cope with the radius or slope of the access road.
The tunnels
In total, 2,877m of tunnel bores were excavated for the three tunnel stretches planned in the original project for the construction of the Pamplona-Cúcuta highway.
One of the main challenges faced by the construction company has been for the construction of the Pamplona Bypass. For this stretch the projected required the construction of a bi-directional tunnel measuring 1.4km in length. This section serves as an interconnection for the Bucaramanga-Pamplona road, substantially improving mobility conditions in the city of Pamplona.
With the construction of this new tunnel stretch, traffic travelling between Bucaramanga and Cúcuta no longer has to cross the city of Pamplona. The tunnel has been a major benefit for Pamplona as it has reduced traffic levels in the city. Previously, vehicles travelling between Bucaramanga and Cúcuta had to use Pamplona’s urban roads, many of which are narrow and have a significant number of pedestrians.
For the construction of the Pamplona tunnel, 1,700 hours were needed in day and night shifts. This portion of the Pamplona-Cúcuta highway project required the excavation of 160,500m3 of material as well as the installation of 923 metal arches to support the bore. The tunnel workers have been able to achieve an average advance/day of 2.8m. So far, 31,700m3 of concrete has been used for the tunnel stretch.
A combination of conventional drill and blast and New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM) excavation processes have been used for the excavation of the tunnel.
A jumbo has been used to drill the holes for the explosives, while for the NATM work, a Cat 320 GC excavator equipped with a hydraulic hammer has been used for the scaling process. Excavators and compact Sandvik wheeled loaders have been used to remove material from the drive.
Once the excavation work has been carried out, this has been followed by phases for shotcrete lining, waterproofing, the placement of granular bases and filters, concrete paving and finally electromechanical installation.
Once it is complete, this two-way tunnel will allow vehicles to travel at maximum speeds of 60km/h. It has a total width of 8.3m, with lanes measuring 3.65m wide, as well as 50cm berms on both sides, at a height of 5m at the centre.
The tunnel is being equipped with state-of-the-art longitudinal ventilation systems, an information system for users, lighting, fire detection, speed monitoring, surveillance cameras and a 924m emergency gallery that has access points.
This tunnel will be the 12th longest in Colombia and will also be the first road tunnel in the country’s Norte de Santander region.
The tunnel is also being equipped with a novel continuous LED lighting system that features IOHNIC technology. This system has been designed and patented by Sacyr and will reduce the changes in light intensity for users entering and exiting the tunnel.
All the control systems will be connected to the Tunnel Control Centre (CCT), located at the entrance portal. A platform at this point integrates the various control systems. This configuration means that any alerts can be handled effectively, especially in the case of any emergency situation.
The Operations Control Centre is located in Los Acacios and will be able to monitor any events that happen in the tunnel in real time.
The second unidirectional tunnel for the Pamplona-Cúcuta project is located in the Pamplonita area. This is a structure featuring a length of 1,060m.
The construction of this tunnel presented a major technical challenge due to the difficult topography of the area. The engineers had to cope with the high slopes, the sharp curves and the long transitions that characterise this section of the road between the municipalities of Pamplonita and El Diamante.
The 1,060m tunnel is the 14th longest in the country and the second longest for the Norte de Santander project. The NATM method was used for its construction. Once the excavation was completed, waterproofing, drainage and lining were carried out.
And for the construction of the third tunnel, the NATM method was also utilised. This stretch has a length of 406m and is located in the La Honda sector.
This stretch is located between the sectors of Don Juana-Los Acacios and has a unidirectional design. It will provide connectivity to the second carriageway running between Pamplona to Cúcuta.
MAIN DATA
New road length: 52km
Existing road rehabilitation: 72km
Number of bridges: 23 (total length 1,900m)
Number of tunnels: 3 (length 2877m)
Investment: €590 million
Work progress: 86%
(Source: ANI)
Full speed ahead for 4G
Colombia’s 4G Infrastructure programme forms part of the much wider Intermodal Transportation Master Plan (PMTI). This is a massive infrastructure initiative intended to connect Colombia through a series of multimodal transportation projects. The aim of this extensive series of works is to develop Colombia’s connectivity and boost the country’s economic development by linking the various industrial regions with its ports. The 4G Infrastructure programme includes 29 road projects and involves building a total of 7,952km of dual carriageways, repairing 6,958km of roads, driving 141 tunnels and constructing 1,300 viaducts. These projects are being carried out under the PPP model.
This has been followed by the more recent 5G Infrastructure programme, initially for 14 intermodal transport projects including road, airport, river and rail works.
So far the work to develop Colombia’s infrastructure has been carried out by a range of international firms from Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Brazil, and Mexico. Local companies have also been involved in the bidding as part of joint ventures with international contractors.
