Representative Projects

- Chingaza
- Chingaza (Expansion)
- San Rafael
- Bucaramanga
- Aguablanca
- Tibitoc
- Misicuni
- Cali
- Barranquilla

San Rafael

San Rafael Project’s objective is to ensure an adequate water supply to the City of Bogotá D.C. and its suburbs beyond year 2000, providing a backup reserve storing sufficient water during 90 days to allow both for scheduling of periodic inspections and maintenance to the tunnels of the main Chingaza System or covering the water supply to the city in the event of an emergency that might arise along the main system.

The project consists of a dam, a diversion tunnel, an auxiliary dike, a drainage gallery, a valve chamber access gallery, an intake, a control and low level outlet structure, an emergency spillway, an intake gallery and a pumping station, including a pipe system that pumps water to the Francisco Wiesner Plant.

Main characteristics:

The dam is a 59.5 m high earth structure, 680 m long at crest level, has a crest width of 7.0 m, and a fill volume of 2.6 Mm³.

The reservoir impounds a volume of 70 Mm³ and floods an area of 371 hectares.

The dike, a homogeneous material type structure, is located north of the reservoir; it is 15.5 m high, has a crest length of 282 m and a fill volume of 80,000 m³. Its purpose is to close a topographic depression located in the north reservoir area.

The diversion tunnel is 483 m long, has a 4.0 m circular concrete-lined cross-section, and served as a low level outlet during project operation for which two 0.35 m and 0.80 m diameter Howell-Bunger valves were installed in the tunnel.

The spillway is a gateless open channel, with an energy-dampening stilling pond structure, designed to handle the PMF that passes through the reservoir, generating a flow discharge of 117m³/sec. The control structure is 8.0 m wide and the chute length is 405 m long.

The pumping station is a circular shaft with a 24,0 m inner diameter and a height of 42.5 m. The station houses five horizontal-axis, variable-speed centrifugal pumps, has a nominal capacity of 4,0 m³/sec and a total dynamic height of 61,0 m. Each electric motor per pump delivers 3,200 kW.

The pump discharge line is a 2.50 m diameter, steel-welded pipe,
750 m long, provided with a valve chamber housing two hand-operated 1.80 m diameter butterfly valves.

Services rendered:

All planning and design was performed by INGETEC, as well as advisement during construction and the subsequent dam instrumentation and the San Rafael Reservoir long-term monitoring.

Client:

Empresa de Acueducto y Alcantarillado de Bogotá E.S.P.
(Bogotá Water and Wastewater Company)

Location:

Bogotá D.C. - Cundinamarca (Colombia)