Engineering companies acknowledge the critical moment but state that the deadlines will be met; projects encompass several areas
Augusto Diniz – Rio de Janeiro (RJ)
In the day following the end of the World Cup nobody could forget that two years later Brazil would host another global sports mega-event involving great responsibility. And once again the country’s capacity to do it was challenged. However, at the Association of Engineering Companies of Rio de Janeiro (Aeerj), despite the short deadlines, nobody doubts that a new city will be delivered to its dwellers and visitors in 2016, when it will be hosting the Olympic Games.
That entity’s executive president, Luiz Fernando Santos Reis points out some transformations in the city and the reasons for their being so optimistic. He acknowledges that little has been made in the hosting cities of the football World Cup as to urban mobility, but that in Rio de Janeiro the situation is different. “Here, a lot more has been done considering the Olympic Games”, says he. “The city is actually being restructured”.
Luiz Fernando lists the state and municipal governments’ projects delivered or being executed – which attests the advances. “In spite of the delay due to lack of licenses, resources and inconsistences in the project, Arco Rodoviário’s inauguration (happened last July) is extremely important”, he mentions. The construction had its first phase completed linking the port of Itaguaí, Rodovia Dutra and the BR-040, which will relieve the traffic of heavy trucks in the city of Rio de Janeiro. But it is still missing to duplicate the stretch between the BR-040 and BR-101, thus completing the project of a marginal road along Baía de Guanabara.
“Another important construction work of the state government is the subway (Line 4, linking Ipanema to Barra da Tijuca). It is highly meaningful””, he mentions. That executive points out also the large construction works in the Bairro Novo and Asfalto na Porta programs, which involve urbanization, draining and sanitation services in several regions.
They reach the poorest region in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro and also some municipalities in the north of the state. Those are dirt roads, without any draining or rain water networks, and the government has made a package of construction works including asphalt, lighting and draining”, tells he.
“There are also interventions to re-urbanize slumps, such as Rocinha, Complexo do
Alemão and Providência”. The Aeerj’s executive president tells that the State Company of Waters and Sewers (Cedae) is to start the construction of a new system to produce treated water called Complexo Guandu 2, estimated at R$3.4 billion minimum, which is to provide water especially to the northern region of the state.
In the ambit of the city hall, Luiz Fernando explains that construction works are moving in three different directions: urban mobility, Olympic equipment and other. “The BRTs’ characteristics in Rio, for instance, are that they are going to cross the municipality transversally and they will be integrated with trains and the subway. Those mobility construction works are of the essence for the municipality’s development”, says he, reminding us that two (BRTs and Transoeste and Carioca, the latter still partially operating) have already been delivered and one is being built (BRT Transolímpica).
That engineer points out as private-public partnership (PPP) downtown, which has become a reference in the country in urban development: Porto Maravilha. “Rio de Janeiro’s downtown had been abandoned”.
With the implementation of Porto Maravilha, the city started a new development where the Perimetral road was removed and Via Binária was built. Several real-estate developments will be implemented. In that area there will also be the Light On-Track Vehicle (the construction has not started yet) which will substitute all the busses circulating in the region and will be connected to the subway, to the Santos Dumont airport and to the ferryboats and the port. “It is a region that will be the biggest tourism pool right behind the Olympic Games”, he states.
In addition to the construction of the Olympic Park and the Athletes’ Villa, Luiz Fernando mentions other pulverized jobsites. “Those are construction works in the Bairro Maravilha district with R$2 billion investments: they include paving, urbanization, sanitation and public squares. It is moving ahead mainly in the Western Region of the city”, he says.
Parque Madureira is the best example among these interventions. The project is entering its second phase and it is a leisure area similar to that in Aterro do Flamengo.
Finally, Luiz Fernando mentions the construction work to increase the Joá viaduct which links the southern region to Barra da Tijuca, estimated at R$457 million. The intervention will last two years and the work has already started.
Rio 2016
“I have no doubts that in 2016 we will have a different Rio de Janeiro. Deadlines are tight, but the government has made enormous efforts to solve that problem. We have faced problems due to Brazilian red-tape and incompetence. Finances are quite difficult to be cleared. Construction companies are charged as the guilty parties, but they are not responsible for the finances”, he comments.
Luiz Fernando assesses that Porto Maravilha is moving on time and that some Olympic equipment may be a little delayed. “Rio de Janeiro is a jobsite”. Constructions should be ready on time because they are interlinked. We are sure that we will meet the deadlines”, says he.
Cleaning the Bay
Cleaning Baía de Guanabara is deemed an almost insoluble problem for 2016. “This is the heel of Achilles. It is the most shocking challenge and the most difficult solution to be found in the short term. It is a marvelous bay, but it does not matter what we do, it will not improve much. Baía de Guanabara is a spillway of the whole sewer system of the state’s northern region. It is a serious and very broad problem”, Luiz Fernando acknowledges.
The Aeerj’s executive president says that resources are not enough and that only 40% of the system of the capital city is treated, and part of it is dumped into Baía de Guanabara. The de-pollution program, according to him, is suffering managerial problems, lack of integration, deficient projects and inconsistent technical standards.
Rio de Janeiro’s engineering
The Association of Engineering Companies of Rio de Janeiro (Aeerj) believes that the moment should increase the value of the industry in the state. “Due to the lack of political alignment among the federal, state and municipal governments for decades, the city has suffered of a lack of construction work. In the moment large construction works were indeed resumed, they ended up in the hands of companies from other states. But the
local market started to bloom by means of smaller construction works. We started to create a new type of companies”, he states.
The Aeerj assesses that the state will be strong when it has its own strong engineering. “After the boom when construction works leaves Rio de Janeiro for other places, what will the companies in Rio do? They have to be strong to face that”, he says.
To face the new moment of the industry in Rio de Janeiro, the Aeerj has offered training courses to enable local companies to join tenders in consortiums and to put together estimates, in addition to divulging to the governments that in Rio de Janeiro there are companies prepared to face the challenges.
“In another area, the Aeerj is advocating respect to contracts. We have been fighting for years to have the government improve the management of public construction work”, tells he. According to him, smaller companies depend on having the government to honor contracts. “Construction works are creating a group of excellence among engineers. Many of those initiatives will remain in the country”, he completes.
Fonte: Revista O Empreiteiro
