Concrete and large scale

dam,port and housing, complementary works in aular, puerto madryn, argentina (1969-1974)

Abstract

From 1969, near the vicinity of the city of Puerto Madryn in the argentine Patagonia, the project to install an industrial plant for the production of primary aluminum was able to acquire the necessary strength during the de facto government of General Juan Carlos Onganía (1966-1970). Finally, after a public tender not unrelated to the country's political ups and downs and the opposition of local and foreign business groups, it was awarded to a group led by the national tire company FATE. The national state would guarantee the supply of energy from a hydroelectric plant on the Futaleufú river -550 km west of the city-, the execution of a deep-water port, in addition to other civil works. For its part, the private capital company executed the construction of housing complexes and its services for the employees who would move to work in the area. The aim of this article is to study the material conditions of these complementary works to the plant installation project that account for the use of reinforced concrete on large scales and, in the case of housing, the experimentation in industrial construction.