The work and the technique: Sogamoso Hydroelectric Project. Colombia

The project carried out by Salini Impregilo through its Colombian subsidiary ICT II SAS (both now part of the Webuild Group), started with the construction of diversion systems to channel the river water into two side tunnels, respectively 830 and 860 metres long and 11 metres high.

Once the river had been diverted, it was then possible to build the dam's foundations and fill the embankments up to the planned height with selected materials from other project excavation areas and alluvial material quarries in the floodplains of the Rio Sogamoso, transported on specially built roads.

The spillway was constructed on the left side of the dam with an 80-metre wide adduction channel that proceeds at rapid speed with a 350-metre slide.

The power station for the three turbines is in the cavern, 150 m below the water level. The water arriving at the turbine comes via a catchment system running through an underground hydraulic circuit of tunnels and wells.

In 2015, upon its completion, the President of Colombia, the Minister of Transport and the President of the Colombian Engineering Society, bestowed a major award for the project.