RECOVERING THE PAN AMERICAN ROAD IN AREA OF CHIRIQUI IN PANAMA WITH GEOSYNTETICS

The main road axis of the Americas is the Pan-American highway that connects from north to south, interrupted in Panama by the Darién Gap, a serious jungle area threatened.

On the border of Panama and throughout the Province of Chiriqui, border province, there is an intense commercial movement of cargo vehicles. The original section of the Pan-American Highway was built more than half a century ago and the other section of the road was built about 10 years ago.

The Pan-American Highway project, section: David – Frontera ( Chiriqui ) , has a length of approximately 55.1 kilometers, which will be rehabilitated, through the placement of asphalt binder, replacement of concrete slabs, replacement of protective barriers, cleaning of gutters and construction ditches, cleaning pipes and boxes, placement of thermoplastic paint and vertical among others. The work includes the maintenance of 11 pedestrian bridges, in addition to 26 vehicular bridges with sense of David - Border and viceversa

Through the Ministry of Public Works, MOP, the ruling entity in Panama, it was possible to specify the use of the 100KN / 100NK resurfacing fiberglass geogrid along a stretch of the Pan American Highway.

The following Geosynthetics used were

• Geogrid fiberglass reinforcement 100KN /100KN = 500,000 m2

• Temporal erosion control blankets = 10,000 m2

Prioritizing investments and maintaining the road network in good condition, makes different geosynthetics are increasingly solutions in designs that are proposed in the MOP, Panama Canal, Developers, Builders and others. Every day a new project and work values ​​the importance of incorporating added values ​​to be more competitive and the fiberglass reinforcement geogrid supports that objective in this work that will be developed.

This session will detail the process and how Panama is prepared with the support of the use of geosynthetics in the improvement and construction of its road network.