The greater Island of Chiloé, located in southern Chile, in the Los Lagos Region, has a rainy cool climate that together with the poor capacity of soils in the area, create a complicated scenario for pavements.
Two different projects—part of the Pan-American Highway solicited by the Ministry of Public Works of Chile on the Island—has TC Pavements® (TCP®) technology incorporated in the regions of Quellón Colonia Yungay and Tara-Compu. Both projects have a joint spacing of 2.2m (7.21 ft), allowing the concrete slabs to thickness of 17.8 cm (7 inches) in both cases.
The traffic in this zone (25,000,000 ESALS) is composed of different kinds of vehicles due to internal trade, intercity connection, tourism and fish trade—the main activity of the Island of Chiloé.
Both pictures (left: Tara-Compu, and above: Quellón Colonia Yungay) are from a visit on July 2016—two years after construction’s end. The TCPavements equip is visiting these projects approximately every 6 months to see how the system works under these conditions. Nowadays, both projects are working properly without problems. The last visit certified the pavements conditions, where no signs of failure or other problems were found.
