Santiago's Line 2 South opens!

On 22 December 2004 President Lagos opened the third and last segment of a line extension program undertaken by Metro Santiago over the last five years. The Line 2 South Extension will add 2.3km of track and two stations to the network of Santiago Metro. The terminal station, La Cisterna at the intersection of Gran Avenida José Miguel Carrera and Américo Vespucio Sur Beltway, two major highways in the south of Santiago, will be the future connection to the western spur the new Line 4, currently under construction. The line extension was designed and constructed in less than five years and the cost for the civil works were slightly below $30 million.

As NATM special designer for the ARA-Ingendesa Joint Venture, the Dr. G. Sauer Corporation (DSC) was responsible for several innovations and improvements of the running tunnel and station designs, which lead to substantial cost savings and schedule improvements for Metro Santiago. One of the major innovations was the introduction of the single sidewall drift configuration for the station tunnels, which was promptly adapted by all design teams for the new Line 4 designs. DSC was also the driving force behind further reductions in the thickness of initial and final shotcrete linings based on three dimensional calculations utilizing structural programs such as Robot and Abaqus.