Investments in the two projects will be over R$1 billion
Augusto Diniz – São Gonçalo (RJ)
Twoo big challenges lay ahead for Autopista Fluminense which in 2008 took over the operation of 320km of the BR-101, from Niterói to the borders of the states of Rio de Janeiro and Espírito Santo: one is to increase Avenida do Contorno, one of the biggest notorious road bottlenecks in the country; and the other is to build a 30 km marginal road around Campos dos Goytacazes, one of the main projects in Rio de Janeiro. The first project is being built. The second one may start in 2017.
Avenida do Contorno is the beginning of the BR-101 to one coming from the city of Rio de Janeiro. Created in the 1960’s to meet the needs of the shipyards in the region and to be an option of road between Niterói and the highly populated São Gonçalo, it has become a road bottleneck as a result of the inauguration of the Rio-Niterói in 1974 and, later, the construction of Niterói-Manilha, a passage to the region of the Lakes, to the north of the state and to Espírito Santo.
2.2 km long, the road today has 90 thousand vehicles/day. The operator has taken over the increase in the capacity of Avenida do Contorno and transformed two no-shouldered lanes in each direction into three shouldered lanes per direction – and those shoulders may become a lane when required in special operations. Expropriation has reached at least 130 buildings.
The interventions in this stretch have started in February 2013. In the avenue, the operator is building a 350 m long viaduct over the former yard of Leopoldina Railway. The structure has 11 gaps, 24 pillars and 66 beams (70 t each). 4.6 m3 of concrete are being used and about 1.5 thousand t of steel.
“The region has a swampy soil. The viaduct’s foundations have been made in in-loco concrete-injected stakes, part of them in a swamp”, tells Odílio de Jesus Ferreira, superintendent director of Autopista Fluminense. According to that engineer, 50m of viaduct still have to be built.
Odílio explains that the initial choice of widening the road would be in the São Gonçalo-Niterói direction, but it would jeopardize the areas with the shipyards, an important employer in the region. Then, to minimize the impact, the widening is being done in 900 m in the São Gonçalo-Niterói direction and 1.3 km in the Niterói-São Gonçalo direction, thus reaching just a small number of shipyards in the transition stretch.
At Avenida do Contorno 40 thousand m3 of rocks is being dismantled and removed. The job, almost done, is being done without explosives in order to avoid having to evacuate dwellers of that highly populated region where shipyard workers live, and to avoid interrupting the complicated traffic in the area.
In total, 200 workers work at that jobsite. There are also services being provided to adapt the catwalks. Completion has been scheduled for February 2015. The investment is worth R$65 million.
Marginal road around Campos
Surrounding the city of Campos de Goytacazes, in the western side of the city and 30 km long, Autopista Fluminense is implementing its engineering project. The city has some 500 thousand inhabitants and is one of the main cities in the state.
The BR-101 crosses the municipality, 15 km within the urban perimeter, which creates serious conflicts between local and long-distance traffic. Due to that, a marginal road around the city is of the essence. “Crossing Campos is chaos”, summarizes Odílio.
The initial project disposed a simple-lane marginal road with two intersections, but it has been changed to double lanes in each direction with five intersections. Construction will take three years.
Autopista Fluminense superintendent director foresees difficulties in implementing the project. “The road crosses the basin of the Paraíba da Sul River at several swampy stretches”, says he. The marginal road will have three bridges, the biggest 1 km long that crosses the river.
The jobsite of the marginal road is located between km 55 and km 84.5 of BR-101. According to the concession contract, construction work will start in 2017 and will cost at least R$1 billion.
After the marginal road, towards north, 5.5 km of duplication will be done by means of marginal roads – as from that spot as far as the border between RJ/ES states, approximately 40 km long, but in the concession contract there is no clause referring to any duplication. It is worth remembering that the BR-101 in Espírito Santos is operated by Ecorodovias and it needs duplication in the whole stretch.
Duplication
Until August Autopista Fluminense informs that it has made R$900 million investments in the BR-101. That operator calculates that over R$1.1 billion will be spent in the next five years, not to mention funds to be spent at the marginal road in Campos.
Autopista Fluminense, according to the concession contract, should duplicate 176.6 km of the BR-101, between Rio Bonito (km 261) and Campos dos Goytacazes (km 84) — from Rio Bonito as far as Avenida do Contorno, divided into three stretches; it has been scheduled for completion in February 2017.
Currently the operator is working in two stretches for which n environmental licenses have already been granted: between Campos dos Goytacazes (km 84) and Macaé (km 144), and between Casimiro de Abreu (km 190) and Rio Bonito (km 261). The duplicated lane has cleared for traffic bit by bit as each stretch is complete.
In that road, the route is corrected and bridges are adapted involving incorporating shoulders and structure reinforcements. In the municipality of Casimiro de Abreu a 120 m long viaduct will be built to avoid conflict with local traffic.
Road cuts area of preservation of the golden lion tamarin (mico-leão-dourado)
Out of the BR-101/RJ North’s 320 km Autopista Fluminense manages, 75 km are a continuous stretch of preservation areas. Engineer Odílio de Jesus Ferreira, the operator’s superintendent director, assesses that clearance for the construction of the duplication in that area requires effort.
From km 188 to km 259 is located the Area of Environmental Protection (APA) of the Basin of the São João River, and from km 214 to km 218 is located the Biological Reserve of Poço das Antas. Between km 183 and km 190 there is the Biological Reserve União.
The conservation units belong to the ecosystem of the Atlantic Rain Forest and they are known to shelter one of the symbols of the Brazilian fauna and which has a broad program of preservation: the golden lion tamarin (mico-leão-dourado).
“Addi
tionally, the road crosses water springs”, reminds us Odílio. The engineer explains that the road crosses several swampy regions. “Dealing with the soil is the least exact engineering, and the least precise as well, but the solution has to be efficacious and economical for the construction to be done. This is the most difficult part”, he ends.
Fonte: Revista O Empreiteiro
