The National Engineering Excellence Awards and the Order of Merit Julio Garavito award were granted by the National Government. In the presence of the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure, Iván Martínez Ibarra; the Chairwoman of the Colombian Society of Engineers (SCI), Diana María Espinosa Bulla; the Chairman of the Infrastructure Agency, Luis Fernando Andrade, and the SCI engineer partners, and with the aim of celebrating the 128-year anniversary of this society, General Director Alfred Ballesteros and Operative Director FIAB - CAR, Aníbal Acosta, attended the Julio Garavito Headquarters and received an environmental award.

On behalf of FCC Construcción, those who attended the ceremony were: Pedro Collado Gomez, Gabriel Farfán Cuervo, Head of Production and Francisco de Borja Morales González, site manager.

It was the first time in all of its history that CAR had received a trade-union recognition of this scale. The award was accepted by the General Director of CAR, Alfred Ballesteros Alarcón and the Head of the FIAB - CAR Engineering Team, Engineer Aníbal Acosta Pulido. According to Ballesteros, "This is a very important award for us, not only for what it represents institutionally but because the effort made by the organisation and the team of engineers to recover the Bogotá river has been praised. Furthermore, it sets us a challenge as an Environmental Authority to successfully complete this project.

Project description

The Bogotá river project entails cleaning, expanding and remodelling the river in order to successfully restore section 1 of the Alicachín area as a public space for the Autonomous Regional Corporation of Cundinamarca, a centrally-located department with Bogotá, Colombia as the capital.

The river is approximately 380- kilometres long and has a river basin that reaches close to 9 million people. This contract includes the expansion of the riverbed over a 40-kilometre stretch to the west of the capital city. The aim of the project is to improve water quality, prevent flooding and recover the riverbed as a multi-purpose and recreational area.

The works entail relocating and reinforcing the existing flood embankments, as well as deepening and widening the riverbed, including the dredging of material with a certain degree of contamination to pre-treat before being moved to authorised dumping sites. Currently, 35 out of the 40 km have been extended.

It will also include implementing a landscape project and restoring areas of ecological interest (wetlands and meanders), as well as constructing a pumping station and the hydraulic protection of 4 bridges. Additionally, It will include the demolition of various buildings and masonry and the disruption to elements of the sewage and drainage system which must be replaced.

The main units needed to carry out these works are: 2,700,000 m³ of mud and canal dredging (extraction), 1,600,000 m³ of excavation and the formation of 1,300,000 m³ of new dykes. Incorporated within the protection of waterbeds and bridges, 10,000 m² of protection via geogrids and mattress structures will be used and 4,000 units of eucalyptus wood.

The rehabilitation and environmental restoration project of the river is part of the Bogotá river megaproject, which ultimately aims to improve the quality of life of the river basin inhabitants, which is connected to the improvement of the river water quality.