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ACO products travelled 12 000 km to support ecological tourism of the rainforest of South America
After a long journey the channels made of polymer concrete arrived in the heart of the colombian amazon at the border to Peru and Brazil

The municipality of Leticia is the capital of the department of the Colombian Amazon. It is also a border city with Peru and Brazil, and with the objective of improving the quality of life of its inhabitants (80% indigenous) in addition to promoting ecological tourism, the Colombian government has launched a tender for the construction of the region's first international airport in 2017.

The main objective when building the airport was to do as little environmental damage as possible, so it was therefore decided to use as many prefabricated products as possible. This is why the ACO S300, class F900 and ACO KerbDrain 305 channels where used for airport drainage in this project. The production sites in Europe are 12 thousand kilometers away from Leticia, which corresponds to 4 full months of transport. Shipping to the port of Cartagena took about 18 days. It took 5 days over land to reach the border with Ecuador. As there is an agreement between Colombia and other governments in the region not to build highways along the Amazon River, which is the longest river in the world, transport had to continue on the river itself, which took another 97 days. It took 8 barges to transport the ACO channels across the river. The process of unloading the barges took about 1 week, requiring 20 workers from the indigenous community, who unloaded the products at the river port of Letícia.

The Airport was reopened by the President of Colombia at the beginning of 2019, and its construction took 2 years.

On behalf of ACO Colombia we are proud to have participated in this work. We can say that, despite the remoteness, and the logistical challenges, ACO is present in the main natural ecosystem on the planet.

Picture gallery

Information at a glance

Which products were used/ installed?

  • ACO S 300 F 900 channels, produced in Germany (900m)
  • ACO KerbDrain 305 channels, produced in the UK (2.000 units)

Who took care of the project?

  • ACO Colombia Sales Department

Which ACO department provided technical service?

  • ACO Colombia Technical Department

Which companies/ firms where involved?

  • Planner: National University of Colombia
  • Customer/Investor: Colombian Government
  • Contractor/Installer: MECO

When was the object build? How long was the construction period?

  • The tender for the construction of the first international airport in the capital of the Colombian Amazon department began in 2017. Its construction took 2 years and the airport was reopened in early 2019.