Despite being a highly seismic country, innovation and talent have allowed Chile to overcome challenges to have great engineering works, such as two of the tallest buildings in South America, one of the longest tunnels in Latin America, dams, highways, modern renewable energy plants and even the future largest telescope in the world.
Every May 14, Chile commemorates the National Engineering Day, in honor of the engineers who promoted the reconstruction of the country after the earthquake of May 13, 1647. In a seismic country like Chile, the challenge of building great engineering works has been surpassed by constructions such as the tallest tower in South America, the longest tunnel in Latin America for its time, and what was the highest railway bridge in the world at the time. Here is a compilation of the great engineering works that have been created in Chile, compiled with information from the College of Engineers, Catholic University and University of Chile.
Viaducto del Malleco: the highest in the world in its time. Located over the Malleco River, in the commune of Collipulli (Araucanía region), it came to be considered the highest railway bridge in the world, with a height of 102 meters from the rails to the bottom of the ravine. Its construction - carried out by Schneider et Cie. - began in 1887 and was inaugurated in October 1890. It allowed the connection of the south with the center of the country, boosting trade and economic development in southern Chile. It is one of the largest works of metallic engineering in Chile, with a length of 347.5 meters. It was declared a national monument in 1990, and today is on the World Heritage Tentative List.
Las Raíces Tunnel: the longest in Latin America in its time. Also located in the Araucanía region, the Las Raíces tunnel was the longest railway tunnel in Latin America, with a length of 4,528 meters. Built in 1939, it connects the towns of Curacautín and Lonquimay, 1,000 meters above sea level. Today it is the fifth longest vehicular tunnel in Latin America, surpassing four Colombian works.
San Carlos Canal: dates back to colonial times. Its construction, carried out to conduct the waters of the Maipo River (Metropolitan Region), is recognized as one of the feats of engineering in Chile. Although its layout dates back to 1588, it finally saw the light of day at the end of the 18th century, during the transition period from the Colony to the Republic. The colonial bridge of the old San Carlos Canal, built in 1805, is today a historical monument and is located in a ditch that forms part of the old course of the San Carlos Canal.
Central Rapel: the first large hydroelectric power plant. Since 1942, the State of Chile conducted several studies for the construction of a dam in the Melipilla sector, which would generate a lake that would allow irrigation for agricultural and livestock activities. Finally, Endesa determined in 1956 that the Rapel River (O'Higgins region) was suitable for the construction of a hydroelectric power plant, which was finally inaugurated on June 21, 1968, becoming the first large hydroelectric power plant in Chile. Its structure is composed of a dam wall which is a concrete vault and its height is 112 meters.
Gran Torre Santiago: the tallest in South America. With a height of 300 meters and 62 floors, this building located in Santiago is not only the tallest skyscraper in Chile, but also the tallest in South America and, at the time of its inauguration in 2014, the tallest in Latin America (to be dethroned in 2020 by the Obispado Tower in Monterrey, Mexico). It is also one of the megastructures located in a sector of high seismic risk.
Cerro Dominador: Latin America's first Concentrated Solar Power plant. Located in the Antofagasta region, in the middle of the Atacama Desert, after its inauguration in June 2021, Cerro Dominador has become an emblem of renewable energies in Latin America, using solar tower and photovoltaic concentration technologies. This plant uses 10,600 mirrors (heliostats), which reflect the sunlight and concentrate the heat in a receiver located on top of the tower, 250 meters high. This makes it the second tallest tower in South America.
Luz del Norte Solar Park: the largest photovoltaic installation in South America. Located in the Atacama region, in the heart of the Atacama Desert, this photovoltaic plant is the first large-scale solar facility in the world authorized to provide complementary services to the electricity grid on a commercial basis. The plant, with the capacity to produce energy equivalent to supplying 174,000 homes, belongs to the U.S.-based First Solar.
Cerro Pabellón: first geothermal plant in South America. In September 2017, this geothermal plant, the first in South America and the first large-scale plant in the world built at 4,500 meters above sea level, was commissioned. Located in the Atacama Desert (in the Antofagasta Region), Cerro Pabellón has the capacity to supply 165 thousand homes.
Santiago Metro: one of the most extensive and modern. Its construction began in 1969, and with the inauguration of the San Pablo-La Moneda section in 1975, its operation officially began. It has seven subway train lines, totaling 140 kilometers in length, and 136 stations, which reach 25 districts of the Metropolitan Region. It has been highlighted as the best subway train in America and today it is the second longest in Latin America.
Costanera Norte Highway: innovation under the river. This highway crosses the city of Santiago (Chile's capital) from east to west. With its 42 kilometers in length, it includes a 5-kilometer tunnel under the Mapocho River, which makes it one of the most important works in the city in recent years. It was inaugurated in 2005, and today it is considered one of the most modern urban highways in the world, in addition to using the free-flow system.
Basilica del Salvador: anti-seismic heritage. The particularity of this church located in downtown Santiago is its anti-seismic protection, a project led by a group of engineers from the Catholic University, which made Chile the first country in Latin America to protect its heritage structures against future earthquakes. This building, built between 1873 and 1892, was hit by the 1985 and 2010 earthquakes, after which this protection project was initiated.
European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT): currently under construction at Cerro Armazones (Antofagasta region), it will be the largest optical-infrared telescope in the world. This, thanks to an agreement between the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the Chilean government.
Other related news
