Tocopilla 400kw Combined Cycle Power Station, Chile

Tocopilla is located in Northern Chile and sits on the edge of the Atacama Desert. It is officially recognised as the driest place on Earth, with no rainfall for hundreds of years.

The existing coal fired power station is inefficient and struggling to meet the demand of the increasing population and demand from local copper mines.

The new Gas/Steam 400 KW combined cycle plant was built adjacent to the existing. This project was staged with stage one being the construction of the building platform and sacrificial 10m high rock seawall. Stage two being civil works and building services. As the plant was cooled by seawater in lieu of cooling towers, stage three was the construction of a 300m incoming cooling water pipe platform and 200m outgoing platform. This stage required a lot of rock blasting to create adequate footings on the ocean floor. The gas pipeline originated from Argentina and came up and over the Andes Mountains and across the Atacama Desert.

The Team

Client		ABB/Alstom Power
Quantity Surveying		Rawlinsons
Project Managers		ABB/Alstom Power
Structural Engineers		Meritec
Foundation Engineers		Trombik

Rawlinsons Involvement

Rawlinsons were engaged at the pre tender stage and produced a Bill of Quantities (Remeasurable) for tendering purposes. A contractor was appointed and the contract was let as a remeasurement contract.

Rawlinsons assessed all progress payments, produced monthly financial reports, measured and agreed all trade packages with the Contractors, agreed all variations and settled the final account.