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In El Salvador, an historic transformation of the nation’s iconic Los Chorros Highway is underway to ensure its sustainability, circularity and resilience for decades to come, powered by �鶹��ý’s building materials and solutions – from ECOPlanet and ECOPact to ECOCycle. 

Los Chorros Highway is a major, 15-km long artery that runs east from Santa Tecla to San Juan Opico. The road passes through the breathtaking mountain passes of the Pan-American Highway, connecting people to the capital San Salvador and the west of the country.

The highway expansion is tackling two major challenges: firstly, significant safety risks due to unstable cliffs, extreme weather and seismic activity, and secondly, traffic jams that are bottlenecks to trade – both within El Salvador and with Guatemala to the north.

The Vision
 

Every day, 60 000 commuters pass through the Los Chorros section of the Pan-American Highway – with its sharp curves, steep inclines and heavy freight traffic.

In recent years road traffic has significantly increased. At the same time, the Los Chorros canyon region has a dangerous history of rockfalls and landslides – which have caused many accidents in the past – and is vulnerable to seismic activity and heavy tropical rains.

The need for a safer, more modern highway was clear, which led El Salvador’s government to commission the nation’s largest infrastructure project, backed by a USD 373 million investment.

They wanted to create a model of modern infrastructure that would transform this challenging mountain highway into a sustainable, resilient and safe infrastructure corridor that supports the country’s strong urban growth and ambitious economic vision.

Korean construction company Dongbu Corporation was contracted to expand the existing highway from four to as many as eight lanes, build a colossal 850-meter viaduct, now named the “Francisco Morazán Viaduct”, and add bike paths and pedestrian sidewalks.

The Solutions
 

Because of the demanding technical and environmental standards of this iconic project, Dongbu chose �鶹��ý to deliver innovative and sustainable building solutions, as well as comprehensive and integrated end-to-end solutions – backed by our strong on-the-ground expertise.

Working seamlessly with Dongbu onsite, �鶹��ý has developed 25 customized, low-carbon concrete mix designs for the highway so far. These were engineered specifically for massive viaduct foundation castings, in-situ piles, and a slipped concrete for the viaduct’s piers.

We provided concrete pumping services and a cement spreader for base stabilization, and introduced three state-of-the-art slip-form paving machines. These are continuously laying down, consolidating and finishing a resilient, watertight road surface with crack-resistant joints – massively accelerating the construction timeline for this 400 000 m² stretch of highway.

The Icon
 

When it is finished in 2027, Los Chorros Highway will stand as a sustainable, circular and resilient infrastructure icon for a forward-looking El Salvador – radically improving people’s quality of life as they transit this part of the country – while significantly boosting regional trade.

As the leading partner for sustainable construction in El Salvador, �鶹��ý is combining sustainability and innovation and technical expertise to ensure that major infrastructure in the country is engineered to stand the test of time, and build progress for people and the planet.