Noticias

10 October, 2015

Azierta’s technical capacity on the ground: freeway A-54

Azierta’s technical capacity is at the forefront of Spanish civil engineering. Its personnel will find a solution to any problem that may arise so that works are executed adequately in an efficient manner and protecting both the environment and the urban areas. A perfect example of the versatility of Azierta’s work is its role in the technical services provided for the section of freeway A-54 that connects Lugo and Santiago de Compostela. This section is 10.8 km long, and connects the municipalities of Monterroso, west of Guntín de Pallares and northeast of the current N-547, and the junction over N-540 in the vicinity of Monte de Meda, already in Lugo.

This is a newly designed freeway with a design speed of 60 miles/hour. It is a dual carriageway with two, 3.5 m lanes on each direction, a one-meter wide inner shoulder and a 2.5 meter outer shoulder and which has required the construction of up to 12 different structures and has required 23 transversal drainage works. These supplementary structures of the freeway are a viaduct, a bridge, eight overpasses and two underpasses. Azierta’s technical achievements as far as planning is concerned also include the junctions with other highways along the new road and the execution of a rest area.

A fair example of the farsightedness and coordination provided by Azierta can be seen in the connection with other highways whose execution has not started yet. For instance, in the Narón-Guntín section, it has been taken into account that it will be necessary to connect it to the future freeway between Ourense-Lugo at the municipality of Guntín de Pallares by means of a high-capacity junction that will mean going from two lanes to four lanes. Besides, in the case of the future Ourense-Santiago branch, an underpass was added as a solution to prevent new works in the future, which will reduce disruptions for the users of both freeways, and more importantly from an economic efficiency perspective, it saves money. The junction with highway CP-1611, between the municipalities of Pradedo de Abaixo and Pradedo de Arriba, has consisted in two traffic circles.

When writing the project, special care was taken to impact as little as possible on existing properties and villages, including parishes, small urban areas or scattered buildings. This is particularly apparent in the case of the design of the freeway in the outskirts of San Cibrao, whose church and parish have been declared to be of historic and ethnographic interest and require special care. The same is true of the connection between the Samai creek and Ramón de Trastulfe Mill, which are also of historic and ethnographic interest. The creek flow is fully preserved by the transversal drainage works. The rest area has been built in the municipality of Liz, on the right side of the road and, of course, it has the necessary branches to access it from both sides of the freeway with the construction of a new overpass.

The inception of the project – which is undoubtedly a testament to Azierta’s ability to work in very different terrains, goes back to October 2008, when the State Secretariat for Infrastructures of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (Fomento) passed the schedule of informative clauses. Fomento awarded the contract to Azierta in May 2009, and the works were executed by Sacyr. Works were completed ahead of completion time – which was June of this year – and it was opened on March 30th by the President of the Autonomous Government of Galicia, Alberto Núñez Feijóo and the Secretary General for Infrastructures, Manuel Niño.