FCC Construcción has carried out several major projects in Mexico, such as the Coatzacoalcos Immersed Tunnel in Veracruz—a landmark achievement in hydraulic and road engineering in Latin America as the continent's first underwater tunnel, with a total length of 1,140 meters (696 of which run directly beneath the Coatzacoalcos River bed at a depth of 15 meters); the El Realito aqueduct, built to supply the city of San Luis Potosí; the Querétaro II aqueduct, which supplies the city of Querétaro; and the El Zapotillo dam in the state of Jalisco, a roller-compacted concrete dam standing 105 meters tall with a capacity of 910 cubic hectometers.

References

Coatzacoalcos Underwater Tunnel

This major project has reduced a journey that previously took half an hour to just 3 minutes, efficiently connecting the city centre with the strategic petrochemical zone of Villa Allende. To overcome the complex conditions of the riverbed, FCC employed the submerged caisson construction method, prefabricating five colossal blocks of prestressed concrete, each weighing 27,000 tonnes, in a dry dock. These sealed structures were then floated, towed through the water and sunk with millimetre precision into a dredged trench at the riverbed, where they were hermetically sealed using special hydrostatic joints. The infrastructure comprises four traffic lanes and features stringent safety measures, including powerful pumping systems and a pressurised central tunnel to ensure the safe evacuation of users in the event of an emergency.

See

El Realito Aqueduct

See

Querétaro II aqueduct

See

El Zapotillo dam

See