The geological instability of our mountains, is a permanent threat to the national road system. It causes heavy damages to the road structures, which cost huge amounts of money and, very sadly and irreparably, a good number of lives.Vast amount of resources must be devoted just to restore traffic and afterwards to reconstruct the highway structures. Even if the occurrence of these natural disasters can not be avoided, it is possible to mitigate miti gate the effect on the road sustem. On the basis of these considerations, AIL COLOMBIA CORP. is engaged in the integration of engineering solutions that can provide safe, efficient and fast responses to such events. Lately, the media has highlighted several of these catastrophes, as a result of large landslides at critical points in the roads. The roads so affected are part of the concessioned highway system, so to say they are first class roads. Let us just cite three events, which occurred in the last few days: The first case occurred in the morning of Wednesday June 28 th in the national road Medellin-Bogota, managed by Devimed SA. Near the town of Copacabana, around km 13th , a landslide displaced some 50,000 cubic meters, afeccting the two lanes. To remove this mass it was necessary to use several thousand truckloads, just to allow the restoration of traffic. Not mentioning the irreparabvle damage to the ecosystems so affected. This road is vital for the land transportation of cargo from the atlantic ports.
Exhibit 1- Copacabana slide
The second event occured in the morning of Sunday June 25 th on the BogotáVillavicencio, near Pipiral, (Sta 64+800) national road in which a heavy rock fall forced the closing of the road to traffic for the whole morning of that day. This road is trhe gateway to the eastern plains, and supports heavy traffic from oil carring trucks, commercial vehicles and a lot of touristic traffic. It is managed by Coviandes SA. l
Exhibit 3- La Balastera Slide Exhibit 2- Pipiral Rock fall
The third disaster occured by a landslide at La Balastera (sta 66+200) of the Mediacanoa - Loboguerrero sector of the national road that connects Buga with the seaport of Buenaventura, This road, managed by Unión Temporal Malla Vial del Valle del Cauca is the main acces road for all international cargo to and from the Pacific markets.
The sad side of the story is that these events are not aleatory, since the ground follows precise behaviours derived from their geotechnical characteristics. However, when roads are built, no appropiate preventive measures are taken, mainly for economical reasons. However, onche the disaster occurs, there is always money available for the corrective measures. When preventive measures are taken, it is forcefull to identify efficient, safe and fast solutions, to allow for a prompt comissioning of the solution. Using corrugated steel products it is possible to to the silde effects. As a plus, operation of the road is safer and the mid term cost is very favorable. In response, AIL Colombia is introducing the fast track technological developments of da por Atlantic Industries Limited (AIL Canada www.ail.ca), a manufacturing corporation leadeig worldwide the providing of integral solutions for the construction of false tunnels, with solutions that are integrated, efficient, economical, and safe , WE WANT TO BE THE MANAGERS OF THE SOLUTIONS THAT YOU REQUIRE TO SOLVE THE GEOTECHNICAL PROBLEMS AT YOUR ROAD´S CRITICAL POINTS IN OUR LACERATED ROAD SYSTEM.
