Work is progressing steadily on the Caruachi hydro project in Venezuela. The project is located near the confluence of the Orinoco and Caroni rivers, and on completion will be the third dam across the Caroni river. The power plant will supply electricity to central Venezuela and any surplus power will be sold to neighbouring countries such as Brazil.
The east bank contract has been taken on by a consortium consisting of Dragados of Spain and ICA of Mexico. The work will include the power house, spillways and concrete dam containment walls. On the west bank, the dam will enclose a reservoir which will cover an area of 600,000ha.
Four Dynapac compactors vibratory compactors were received at the site recently and they will be used for various compaction duties in this part of the project.
A consortium consisting of two Venezuelan contractors, Constructora Dell’Acqua and Constructora Barsanti, will construct the dam across the river and perform all the west bank works.
The project began in 1999 and is scheduled for completion by 2005.