2024

  

  

On 11 January, the Chilean NG, chaired by Matias Valenzuela organised a seminar talk on Digitalization by Dr.  Kristian Schellenberg from Switzerland. Those who took part, included experts from the Ministry of Public Works, Road Department and Airport Department of Valparaiso region. The Road Director of Valparaiso, Eng. Daniel Diaz also attended the lecture, adding to the list of dignitaries present at the Seminar. For further information: Click Here

  

2023

During November to December there were mainly two activities:

1. Seminar about Monitoring and Instrumentation applied on Chilean Bridge.

Venue: Punta Arenas Magallanes in the South of Chile. Participant: MOP - UMAG - IABSE and PUCV. Date: 11th December 2023. Activities involved a technical visit with the Ministry of Public Works to two bridges: Rubens Bridge and the beginning process of demolition of Chabunco Bridge. Please find information about this below. 

 

Talk organised on "Bridge Plan: Instrumentation and Monitoring of Puentes" which was organized by the Department of Construction Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, in conjunction with the Directorate of Roads of the Magallanes Region and the School of Construction and Transportation Engineering of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso. In the activity, the fiscal inspector of Highway Works, Claudio Muñoz, presented on the progress of the Chabunco bridge in Punta Arenas; and PUCV engineers Matías Valenzuela (newly elected IABSE Vice President) and Marcelo Márquez, spoke about the Bridge Plan that is being developed at the national level.

2.Seminar about Airports construction.

Venue: Santiago de Chile. Participant: Ministry of Public Works - PUCV - IABSE and National Committee of Asphalt. Date: 6th December 2023.

Scope: The seminar presented the future challenge of the design and construction of airports in Chile. There are four lectures, moderated by the Chair of IABSE NG Chile. The lectures were given by the Director of General Work of MOP, providing the future initiatives in this matter, the Director of Airport of MOP with the Airport Manual - Construction volumen, Director of PUCV - Escuela de Ingeniería en Construction and Transporte, and there was also a lecture on the implementation of Climate Change indicators in Airports, and General Director of BITUMIX - Asphalt Committee. Finally, a panel discussion was carried out in order to summarize the main issues and future trend on airports life cycle.

  

Photos above: Rubens Bridge; IABSE Chile - Moderator; Participants: PUCV - MOP - IABSE - BITUMIX; Panel Discussion - MOP, PUCV, BITUMIX; Director of General Work of MOP - Boris Olguin

Chilean and Swiss Group collaboration: Watch the video (Click here)

 

Puente de Chacao is currently the largest bridge construction site in South America. The multiple-span suspension bridge with main spans of 1’055 and 1’155 m is progressing in the construction of all three towers and the anchor blocks. Following the collaboration of the Chilean and the Swiss National Groups for the Third International Bridge Congress in 2020 and the joint work in the Task Groups of Commission 5 Existing Bridges, the Chilean NG Chair Mathias Valenzuela and the Ministerio de Obras Públicas received Swiss IABSE Member Kristian Schellenberg for a technical visit on site, on 11 January 2023. Those who were present at the site visit included: Matias Valenzuela (IABSE Chile chair); Jairo Quinteros (IABSE Chile member); Carlo Castilla (Fiscal Inspector Chacao  Bridge); Kattya Adasme (Responsible of south area Chacao Bridge) - presenting in the video; Felipe Romero (Construction Inspector Chacao Bridge).

A project explanatory video is available: Click Here

Chile and Colombia

Both NGs collaborated in order to improve the knowledge of 'Bridge Engineering', and set up an online event on 24 March 2023, which focused on three topics: design, construction and maintenance. Such events bridge the knowledge gap, and also help in promoting IABSE's activities to all. The Speakers were Dr. Matias Valenzuela S., Mg Marcelo Marquez, Mg Mary Gonzalez.