on the road through the americas

VOL. XL • # 167 • JULY/AUGUST 2013
English Edition
ON THE ROAD
THROUGH THE
AMERICAS
SCIENCE ARCHAEOLOGICAL FINDS IN THE
VICINITY OF THE SANTO ANTÔNIO DAM
INNOVATION THE PEOPLE WHO INVENT
AND REINVENT BRASKEM EVERY DAY
Thousands of Brazilians
will also be wearing
Odebrecht’s shirt.
We are very proud to be taking part in the modernization and construction of Brazil’s most
important sports arenas. In addition to making multipurpose facilities available to maximize the
public’s comfort and convenience, these projects have created thousands of opportunities for
their local communities to find work, acquire skills and boost their income.
More than just building major arenas, we are helping many people build their dreams.
E D I T O R I A L
The necessary
journey of renewal
T
his issue marks the debut
of Odebrecht Informa’s new
editorial approach and graphic
design. The magazine is changing,
yet again, because Odebrecht is
changing, as always.
The main difference in our
editorial approach is opening with
an extensive special report. The
idea is that the subject of that
report, which could be the Group’s
engineering & construction works,
industrial operations, businesses
or programs, should enable you,
the reader, to discover the most
delightful aspects of the work done
by Odebrecht teams - a story that
moves and inspires.
In this inaugural issue
showcasing Odebrecht Informa’s
new design, the special report
is focused on highways. Our
reporters and photographers have
gone on the road in Brazil, Peru,
Colombia, Panama, the Dominican
Republic and the United States.
You will find their reports on
what they saw, heard and felt
during their travels in “Roads of
the Americas,” a 38-page journey
we are inviting you to take with
2
them. You will see everything that
thrilled and inspired our reporters
and photographers, and before
them, provided Odebrecht Group
members with transformative
experiences.
Other changes in our editorial
approach include institutional
ads for Odebrecht companies and
projects, which give the magazine
a new dynamic, and the “Click”
section, which permeates each
issue with special images captured
by our photographers.
The magazine also contains
special sections and general reports
- important news and analysis for
Odebrecht members and all the
Group’s stakeholders.
All this is presented in a new
and attractive package that makes
the magazine more readable and
enjoyable, while giving it a look that
is in line with the current trends of
contemporary design.
In short, this is the new
Odebrecht Informa, which is
celebrating its 40th anniversary
in October. As you will see in
the following pages, it is getting
younger every year. ]
Fernando Vivas
Odebrecht informa
3
H I G H L I G H T S
COVER
SCIENCE
Southern Interoceanic Highway, Peru. Photo by Márcio Lima.
56
06
Roads of the Americas: ride along with our teams as
they travel the roadways of Brazil, Peru, Colombia, the
Dominican Republic, Panama and the USA
A major benchmark archaeological
project is underway in the area
where the Santo Antônio Dam is
being built in the Brazilian state
of Rondônia
LOGISTICS
64
From the cane fields to service stations,
Odebrecht Industrial’s end product
follows a long road before reaching
consumers
4
LIFE ON THE JOBSITE
60
The Teles Pires Dam jobsite on the
state border of Mato Grosso and Pará,
Brazil, innovates with projects focused
on improving workers’ quality of life
76
ciTies
See how a transport solution has
become a way of integrating a
community into its own city
folks
interview
52
72
The thoughts and daily lives of José
Cláudio Daltro, Saionara Lewandovski,
Luiz Gordilho and Antônio Pinto
inventors
47
Meet the people responsible for creating
products and processes at Braskem, and
find out about their ever surprising dayto-day experiences
Roberto Ramos, Entrepreneurial Leader (CEO) of
Odebrecht Óleo e Gás, discusses the current situation
for the Brazilian oil industry and the company’s
contributions in that context
PETROCHEMICALS
74
ENVIRONMENT
A reflection on the measures
needed to preserve the most
essential natural resources
68
YOUTH PROTAGONISM
84
25 years ago, young people became the
focus of the operations of the Odebrecht
Foundation, which decided to treat them
as a solution instead of a “problem”
In Paulínia and Mauá, São Paulo, two plants
that helped make the history of Braskem
(and the Brazilian petrochemical industry)
mark anniversaries
Odebrecht informa
5
C O V E R
ππHouston, Texas: the fourth-largest city in the United States
6
ROADS OF
THE AMERICAS
Ride along with our
teams as they go on the road
in six countries
Odebrecht informa
7
R o a d s
o f
t h e
A m e r i c a s
Not all of them have read On the Road,
USA
the most celebrated work by the legendary
American writer Jack Kerouac, but they
DOMINICAN
REPUBLIC
had to embody some of the beat generation’s
spirit to produce the articles and photos featured in the
special report that opens this issue of Odebrecht Informa. In
this debut of the magazine’s new editorial approach and graphic
PANAMA
COLOMBIA
design, we invite you to join our reporters and photographers on
an adventure called “Roads of the Americas.” In its 38 pages, you
will travel on highways in Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Panama, the
Dominican Republic and the United States. What you’ll find on
the road is the life (all of it) that pulsates in the communities
within the sphere of influence of seven highways built or under
construction with the help of Odebrecht teams. Enjoy the ride. We
hope it will be thrilling, inspiring and unforgettable. From now on,
you’re “com o pé na estrada,” “en el camino,” on the road.
8
PERU
BRAZIL
ππPraia do Forte: the pearl of a heavenly region, the North Coast of Bahia
estrada do coco
Written by Ricardo Sangiovanni | Photos by Geraldo Pestalozzi
Escaping the urban bustle of Salvador, Bahia, at lunchtime to go to a good restaurant in Praia do Forte and
then returning to work in the city is now routine. The
roughly 55-km distance between the capital and the
most famous beach on Bahia’s North Coast is no longer
an obstacle: traveling on the Estrada do Coco (Coconut
Highway) is much faster than driving between the central districts of the congested city of Salvador.
A well-known tourist destination in the tropical
paradise of the North Coast, the village of Praia do Forte
has also become a culinary attraction. There is a growing demand for traditional Bahian cuisine, the ancestral
heritage of indigenous and African cultures. Its secrets
have been preserved by generations of legitimate inhabitants of the region - like the cook, better yet, chef,
Maria da Natividade Teles do Nascimento, 57.
Nati, as she is known, is the owner of the Casa da
Nati (Nati’s House) restaurant, one of the finest establishments in Praia do Forte. Her “plain, homemade food”
has delighted customers for 18 years, since the days
when the locale still looked more like a fishing village
than the tourist complex of resorts and guesthouses,
services, culture and recreation it has become today.
But Nati’s status as a cultural icon of the North
Coast is not just due to her skillful preparation of stews
based on palm oil. Not even her delicious special dishes,
Odebrecht informa
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R o a d s
o f
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A m e r i c a s
of Sergipe, completing the route that has turned the
beaches of the North Coast into a tourist destination.
The second was the rehabilitation and widening
of the 46.3-km Estrada do Coco between Salvador and
Praia do Forte by CLN (the Litoral Norte concession
company, an affiliate of Odebrecht TransPort) in 2000.
Thanks to this 13-year concession, the flow of vehicles on the Estrada do Coco/Linha Verde routes has
doubled from 360,000 per month in January 2001 to
721,000 per month in January 2013.
“Previously, going to Salvador was darned difficult,” says Nati, who remembers traveling there in
a truck loaded with coal as a child. “I got filthy!” She
laughs at the memory. Currently, twice a week, she
takes a “short hop” into town to buy shrimp and palm
oil. The drive, which used to take over an hour before
the highway was widened, now takes 25 minutes.
such as fish à la Nati, made with coconut milk, tomatoes and shrimp. Born and raised in Praia do Forte, she
is a role model for her community, and a reminder that a
“native” can also be highly successful entrepreneur.
Her restaurant got its name because it started
out and still operates in the house where Nati lived
until the 1990s, which is also her childhood home. It
all started in 1995 when she served homemade food
to surfers on her doorstep. Her clientele grew, and
she renovated the house, moving the living quarters
to the top floor and running the restaurant on the
ground floor. Today Casa da Nati serves about 150
meals a day to a growing number of diners, thanks to
partnerships with hotels and tourist attractions on
the North Coast.
According to Nati, improved access to Praia do
Forte for people driving north from Salvador and south
from the North Coast, has also been a catalyst for her
business’s success. Both improvements are due to
Odebrecht projects.
The first was the construction in 1993 of the 137.6km Linha Verde (Green Line), connecting the town
of Mata do São João (of which the Praia do Forte is a
district) with Jandaíra, near the border with the state
Cultural tourism
Before starting her restaurant, Nati worked with
São Paulo businessman Klaus Peters, a pioneer of
tourism on the North Coast. In 1971, Peters bought
about 30 hectares of the Praia do Forte Farm, which
included a fishing village and Garcia D’Ávila Castle,
ESTRADA DO COCO/
LINHA VERDE
SE
Rio Real
Praia do Forte
Mangue
Seco
Esplanada
Siribinha
Sítio do Conde
Imbassaí
Lin
ha
Ve
rde
Alagoinhas
This former fishing village
has become an
attractive tourist hub. The
point where the
Imbassaí River meets the
sea is a heavenly
spot.
Subaúma
BAHIA
Sauípe
Catu
Diogo
Mata de
São João
o
Itacimirim
Guarajuba
Arembepe
tra
da
d
Camaçari
Es
Candeias
Co
co
Santo Amaro
Abrantes
Lauro de Freitas
Salvador
Atlantic
Ocean
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The main beach resort tow
n on the North
Coast of Bahia. The high
lights are Garcia
D'Ávila Castle, built in the
16th century, and
the Tamar sea turtle pres
ervation project.
And of course, there are
the beaches.
Imbassaí
Praia do Forte
Diogo
This town (named after
one of Bahia’s earliest
Portuguese settlers, Diog
o Álvares Correia, or
Caramuru) still retains its
rustic charms, ideal
for camping and walking
on the dunes.
Sauípe
Sauípe Park, the environ
mental preserve that
houses the natural history
museum that tells
the story of the region, is
a must for visitors.
Another highlight is the
complex of hotels in
Costa do Sauípe.
Mangue Seco
The dunes and fishing villa
ge became famous
as the backdrop for “Tie
ta,” a Brazilian soap
opera based on the novel
by Jorge Amado,
filmed in 1989. Just gett
ing there is an
adventure that starts whe
n you cross the Real
River on a raft.
ππNati: she started out serving food to surfers on her doorstep
the farm’s former headquarters. He planned to build a
large hotel - the Praia do Forte Eco Resort, opened in
the 1980s - and to begin exploiting the area’s tourism
potential.
In addition to the natural beauty of that tropical haven, Peters also saw potential for cultural tourism - after all, Garcia D’Ávila Castle (also known as
the Tower House), built in 1551, is a rare example of
Brazilian medieval architecture, listed as a national
heritage site.
The history of the castle is surrounded by mysteries, which attracts tourists and researchers alike.
For some historians, Garcia D’Ávila was a bastard son
of the first governor-general of Brazil, Tomé de Sousa,
who gave him vast donations of tracts of land - so vast
that it is estimated that they stretched from Bahia to
Maranhão, totaling between 300,000 and 800,000
km2 - domains that belonged to his descendants for
more than three centuries.
The castle is run by the Garcia D’Ávila Foundation,
created by Peters, and attracts around 20,000 visitors
a year, most of whom have also joined Casa da Nati’s
clientele. Before starting her own business, Nati was
Peters’ right-hand woman at the Eco Resort for almost
a decade. “I went from cashier to Human Resources
Assistant. I helped out at the reception desk, operated
the Telex... I did everything. I learned a lot from him.
Then I went into business for myself.”
The eternal lighthouse keeper
Peters, who died in 2006, had a plan that went beyond developing the area’s tourist potential: it also included bringing development to the village by attracting new businesses which include local people and create job opportunities for the villagers, who are mostly
descendants of former slaves of the Tower House. The
Praia do Forte model has served as inspiration to other
towns and villages on the Linha Verde, sucn as Barra de
Jacuípe, Imbassahy, Diogo, Sauípe, Conde, and, further
north, Mangue Seco.
At 77, José “Cajueiro” Pereira Nunes, is a folk figure in the region. He still remembers how things were
“before the time of Mr. Klaus.” “It seemed like slavery times, you know?” recalls Cajueiro, whose nickname means “cashew tree.” He got it because when
his mother was pregnant with him, she used to sneak
away from home to eat cashews.
Born and raised in Praia do Forte, and always curious, insightful and dynamic (he has been a mechanic, blacksmith, fisherman, bricklayer, plumber, boat
caulker, well driller, community leader and capoeira, and currently enjoys cycling, dominoes and playing tambourine in serenades), Cajueiro confronted
the “backward” mentality of the former owners of the
farm. “They didn't let the villagers build anything. We
couldn’t have a bathroom or even tiles on our roofs.
When the bosses came to the village and saw that
Odebrecht informa
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R o a d s
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o f
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A m e r i c a s
ππClockwise from top, the village of Praia do Forte, a sea turtle
protected by the Tamar Project, Cajueiro the lighthouse keeper, Estrada
do Coco and Garcia D'Ávila Castle
Odebrecht informa
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R o a d s
o f
t h e
A m e r i c a s
ππAdauto Poeta: a native of the region, he lives a tranquil life in a wooden house surrounded by Atlantic Forest
everything was the same, paralyzed, that was that they
liked,” he recalls.
Endowed with a prodigious memory, Cajueiro uses his “tales” to illustrate the tenacity that gradually
made him an agent of community development. “Once
I had to build a low brick wall next to the [mud] wall of
my father’s house to block a stream of water that was
making the wall rot. Then the owner called me. She
said I couldn’t build anything because the land was
hers, and she had not authorized it. I replied that the
land might be hers, but it was my father’s house, and
it would take a command from God come down from
Heaven to stop me from following his orders.” He built
the wall.
Recognized in the village for his thousand and one
skills, the debonair Cajueiro is especially famous for
one of them: he is the eternal lighthouse keeper (operator) of Praia do Forte, entitled to a Navy rank. In
fact, he was the one who welcomed the founders of the
Tamar project in the 1980s. Guy and Neca Marcovaldi
14
made the Lighthouse house the first headquarters of
their newly created project for the preservation of sea
turtles. Today, Tamar receives an average of 600,000
visitors a year – all told, it has welcomed more than 15
million people. And it should be said that many have
patronized Casa da Nati.
Cajueiro reports that, until the mid-20th century, before Estrada do Coco was paved, people who
wanted to get to Salvador had to travel on horseback,
on dirt roads, to the nearby town of Dias D’Ávila, and
from there take a train or even a boat along the coast,
or even walk, which took a whole day. Odebrecht also
helped pave the original Estrada do Coco in the 1950s.
From the forest to the screen
But some people think that Praia do Forte has
grown too much and prefer the silence of the Atlantic
Forest. This is the case with Adauto Nascimento, or
Adauto the Poet, 54, an artist from the North Coast. He
was born in the village and moved from there 10 years
ππA couple sitting in front of the church in the center of town: the pace of life makes it enjoyable
ago. He now lives on the other side of Estrada do Coco
in a wooden house on the edge of the Sapiranga environmental protection area, 2 km from Praia do Forte.
A professional fisherman, Adauto has participated
in poetry sessions for 30 years. He has a reggae band
and runs the Canto Eco na Mata (Forest Eco Corner)
project, which invites local bands to give monthly performances at his bar, Recanto do Poeta (Poet’s Corner)
at the entrance to the reserve. Up to a thousand people
flock to the shows.
With an area of 5.33 km2, the Sapiranga reserve is also run by the Garcia D’Ávila Foundation.
There, two years ago, the Foundation created the
Sustainable Reserve project, which organizes vocational education programs for the surrounding communities. More than 900 residents have learned
farming and animal husbandry methods as well as
handicrafts, making jewelry from coconut straw
and shells. The project has also planted more than
180,000 native seedlings in the reserve.
Adauto is one of the partners in this project, which
receives about 20,000 visitors a year. Many stop at
Recanto do Poeta to try the fish cakes prepared by the
poet’s wife, Dona Caçula. That helps the couple generate an income to maintain their household without
having to seek work outside the reserve.
Connected to the world, the North Coast continues to attract tourists and professionals from other
countries, who fall under the region’s spell and sometimes make their homes there. This was the case with
Californian filmmaker Kaya Verruno, 27, who has
spent his holidays in Praia do Forte since he was three.
In 2010, he wrote and directed, the film “Na Sombra da
Linha Verde” (Shadows of the Green Line), which tells
the story of a young man who returns to the North
Coast to live with his grandfather and rediscover his
roots. The film won the Best New Director award at
the Brazilian Film Festival in Los Angeles. The cast is
comprised of local residents. Adauto stars in the film,
which is narrated by Nati. ]
Odebrecht informa
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R o a d s
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t h e
A m e r i c a s
rota das bandeiras
Written by Ricardo Sangiovanni | Photos by Geraldo Pestalozzi
The flower grower Fernando Avancine, 50, lives in São
Paulo, the region with the most vibrant economy in
Brazil, with a consumption value of BRL 382 billion per
year, according to Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV) data
for 2012. Fernando is certainly doing his part to contribute to that figure. But his greatest contribution to life in
the region is undoubtedly unique: “We sell beauty.”
To “sell beauty,” says Francisco, who holds a degree
in Agronomy, it is essential to produce flowers in a location that is well connected to the distribution center where the plants will be sold. “Flowers are living,
delicate products. They need to get to market quickly
without wear and tear. Delays make flowers droop and
fade, and nobody wants to give his girlfriend ugly flower. It’s a surefire way to start a quarrel,” he jokes.
Fernando lives in Atibaia. His garden is 3 km
from the city center, which has about 400 producers
16
and is the municipality with the largest flower growing area in São Paulo State. He drives his truck for
less than an hour on the stretch of the D. Pedro I
Highway between Flora Avancine and the Campinas
Supply Center (Ceasa), which houses the largest permanent flower market in Latin America. Fernando
has a stall there.
His flower truck is just one of about 125,000 vehicles per day that travel on the D. Pedro I, the main highway in the system operated by the Rota das Bandeiras
concessionaire, an affiliate of Odebrecht TransPort.
Every year, more than 85 million vehicles use that route,
at a rate that is growing year by year. Since the beginning of the concession in 2009, the company has invested BRL 786 million in improvement projects. Over
the course of 30 years, that investment will total an estimated BRL 2.6 billion.
ππBridge on the D. Pedro I Highway (opposite) and Fernando Avacine with his team: “We sell beauty”
The way back
Fernando is a native of São Paulo State, descended
from Italian immigrants. He and his wife, Guaraci, decided to move to Atibaia in 1985, after they both graduated in Agronomy. At first, they lived on the small farm
where their flower company now operates. “It was my
father’s property. We used to spend our family vacations
there when I was little. I decided to begin something
new - a business that was mine. And that was the land
we had to start with.”
After unsuccessful attempts to raise goats, which
ran away, and cucumbers, which proved why “cucumber” (pepino) means “problem” in Brazilian Portuguese,
Fernando decided to take a friend’s advice and invest in
the flower business. The books available initially posed
a linguistic barrier. They were mostly in Dutch and
Japanese, the cultures where flower growing is a common practice. But Fernando didn’t give up: he read up
on the subject as much as he could and got plenty of dirt
under his fingernails until he became an expert. He soon
realized that if he wanted to grow flowers, he would have
to give the business his full attention. “I used to play
soccer on weekends, until the day there was a sudden
rainstorm. I rushed back to the farm, but it was too late
to save the seedlings. After that, I quit playing soccer. I
spent years without taking a weekend off.”
ROTA DAS BANDEIRAS
Paulínia
The region’s cultural cap
ital, particularly the
movie-making hub whe
re major national
productions have been
filmed.
Mogi Guaçu
General Milton
Tavares de Souza Hwy
Conchal
Campinas
Mogi Mirim
Engenheiro Coelho
Artur Nogueira
The driving engine of São
Paulo State’s
economy in the interior.
An enormous fruit
and flower market stan
ds beside the
D. Pedro I Highway: the
Campinas Ceasa.
MG
Cosmópolis
Campinas
Paulínia
Jundiaí
Itatiba
Jarinu
Valinhos
Louveira
D. P
edr
oI
Atibaia
Bom Jesus dos Perdões utra
.D
Igaratá
Rod
Cor
rido
r
Jundiaí
SÃO PAULO
São Paulo
Nazaré
Paulista
nna
n Se
yrto
A
.
d
Ro
Jacareí
The Serra do Japi is wor
th a visit – a
mountain range listed by
UNE
biosphere reserve, it is loca SCO as a
ted near the
city.
Atibaia
The main flower producin
g town on the
D. Pedro I Highway, part
icularly known for
orchids and garden plants.
Nazaré Paulista
The site of the loveliest land
scapes on the
D. Pedro I corridor, than
ks to the dam that
has formed immense artifi
cial lakes.
Odebrecht informa
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R o a d s
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ππA typical local farm, and Salvador Brotto: exports
via Cumbica International Airport
His flower growing operation began with three
types of seedlings used for planting in gardens. Today
he produces more than 110 varieties. Sage, “mini pink,”
impatiens and plumbago are the most popular. He sells
them at the farmer’s markets of Campinas, São Paulo
and São José dos Campos. When the business was getting started, it was just him and his wife. Now, in addition to having brought in a new partner, he offers work
opportunities to 40 people. “Looking back, I don’t know
how we had the strength to get where we are today. But I
have wonderful memories,” he says.
Figs for export
In addition to flowers, the so-called “fruit circuit”
is also a major part of São Paulo State’s economy. It is a
green belt formed by 10 towns with a tradition of growing
exotic fruits, all close to the D. Pedro I Highway: Atibaia,
Indaiatuba, Itatiba, Itupeva, Jarinu, Jundiaí, Louveira
18
Morungaba, Valinhos and Vinhedo, which account for
more than half of the fruit production in the state.
Figs are the specialty of Salvador Brotto, 50, another
descendant of Italians, who now plants the fruit on the
property where his grandfather used to grow coffee. “It is
a delicate fruit that takes a lot of work, but it is very popular in the local and international markets,” he explains.
Brotto began working at the age of 10. He started
planting figs more than 30 years ago. A shrewd businessman, he noticed that profits would be higher if
he eliminated the company he had hired to handle exports from the supply chain. “The important thing was
to get the word out. I got to work, learned English, set
up a website, and today we export all over Europe,” he
says proudly. On his farm, 100 employees grow, package and transport the fruit.
Because they are delicate, figs cannot be transported in large quantities. Therefore, they are exported on passenger aircraft, in the luggage compartment.
Today, Brotto mainly exports his produce via Cumbica
International Airport, in Guarulhos, São Paulo, Brazil’s
main point of departure for passenger flights. However,
the increase in passenger traffic at Viracopos Airport
in Campinas, after an expansion project is completed,
may make it the best option, since that airport is closer. And since Rota das Bandeiras will build the 10-km
section required to complete the southern part of the
Campinas Beltway, linking the D. Pedro I Highway to
the airport area, there will be no lack of good roads to
take the figs to market. ]
ππDionisia Turco Quispe: “Thanks to the highway, sales are up now”
SOUTHERN INTEROCEANIC HIGHWAY
Written by Luiz Carlos Ramos | Photos by Márcio Lima
Peru and Brazil have combined their national treasures
in a magnificent example of communication and exchange. The clear progress made by the economy, tourism and quality of life goes beyond the length and terminuses of the Southern Interoceanic Highway, a road
project that has been creating a new link between the
Pacific and Atlantic Oceans since 2010, facilitating unification with the South American road system. For Peru,
the highway not only fosters exports of that country’s
products but brings in more Brazilian tourists looking to
enjoy its Andean landscapes, historic heritage and rich
folkloric traditions. Peruvian citizens, in turn, are gaining access to the attractions of Brazil.
As we drive along the highway, the impact of
the new economic boom is clearly visible. This is
true on sections 2 and 3, totaling 649 km, built by
Conirsa, a joint venture led by Odebrecht Peru, in
partnership with the Peruvian contractors Graña y
Montero and JJC Contratistas Generales. The IIRSA
South Concessionaire, formed by Odebrecht, JJC and
Ingenieros Civiles Contratistas Generales, is responsible for maintaining the highway for the next 20 years.
The second stretch starts in the Cuzco metropolitan
region, 3,410 meters above sea level, runs through the
icy Pirhuayani area in the Andes, at 4,725 m above sea
level, the highest altitude where the road was built,
and then goes down as far as Puente Iñambari. That is
where section 3 begins, running across flatlands of the
sweltering Amazon rainforest as far as the Acre River
Bridge on the Brazilian border.
Odebrecht informa
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ππAlpacas in Ocongate and (opposite) Zenobio Vargas: thanking the mountain gods
IIRSA is the acronym for the Initiative for Integration
of Regional Infrastructure in South America, a program
undertaken in 2000 by all 12 South American countries
to cover the areas of transport, telecommunications and
energy. In addition to IIRSA South, IIRSA North has also come to Peru under Odebrecht’s responsibility, linking the coastal port of Paita to the city of Yurimaguas
in the Amazon Basin. On the Southern Interoceanic
Highway, three branches connect the Altiplano region
with the Pacific ports of San Juan de Marcona, Matarani
and Ilo.
This road complex and other routes make it possible to travel 5,917 km by car, bus or truck from
Lima, Peru, to São Paulo, Brazil, via Ica, Nazca, Cuzco,
Urcos and Puerto Maldonado and the Brazilian cities
of Rio Branco, Porto Velho and Cuiabá. The Ormeño
company runs a bus line along this route as far as
São Paulo’s Tietê Terminal, a trip that takes four
days and four nights.
20
Odebrecht Informa went for a drive on the
Interoceanic Highway in June. Our team visited Cuzco,
which was celebrating the Feast of the Solstice, or Inti
Raymi, dedicated to the Sun God – an annual tradition
dating back to the Inca Empire – passed by the road sign
for the town of Urcos that marks the beginning of section
2, and delved into the fantastic ups and downs of a route
full of curves and discoveries.
Life in the high Andes
First stop: Alto Cuyuni, 4,185 m above sea level, slightly above a belvedere that affords a view of the
spectacular snowy peak of Ausangate, 6,384 m above
sea level. The belvedere is being rebuilt and will soon
offer a modern restaurant serving local cuisine that will
replace the original establishment. It is already prepared
to welcome Peruvian and foreign visitors alike.
Community leader Zenobio Vargas, the local tourism director, arrives with his musician friends. They are
Iñapari
Abancay
Santa Rosa
Cusco
Ica
Puerto Maldonado
Urcos
Peru’s main Amazonian
city on the route of
the Southern Interoceanic
Highway, its
importance to the nation’
s economy has
grown in recent years.
Nasca
PERU
Juliaca
Puno
Ti
ke
Puerto
San Juan
tic
a
c
a
Iñapari
Arequipa
Pacific
Ocean
Moquegua
Puerto
Matarani
Ilo
Located in the Altiplano
region and linked to
historic Cuzco, it marks the
beginning of the
stretch of the Southern Inte
roceanic Highway
that goes as far as the Bra
zilian border.
One of the most elevated
parts of the
Southern Interoceanic Hig
hway, where the
route reaches 4,725 met
ers above sea level.
This is alpaca country.
Southern Interoceanic
San Francisco
Highway
Paracari
Urcos
Santa Rosa
Puerto Maldonado
Lima
La
SOUTHERN INTEROCEANIC HIGHWAY
BRAZIL
BOLIVIA
Located at the end of the
Peruvian section
of the Southern Interoce
anic Highway, near
the Acre River, it is the link
to the Brazilian
road system.
all wearing indigenous clothing and carrying the instruments of the Altiplano – a flute, a bass drum and a pututu (conch shell horn). Vargas says: “Let us thank the
gods of these mountains,” and starts organizing an Inca
ritual. Dionisia Turco Quispe belongs to the Quechua
ethnic group. She and her three children stand on the
roadside selling handicrafts they make themselves necklaces, bracelets and shawls. “Sales are already up
now that the highway is ready,” says Dionisia.
We drive through one small community after another. In Ocongate, the biggest town, at 3,800 meters
above sea level, there is reason to celebrate: the local
alpaca producers plan to increase the production of alpaca fiber used to make shawls, coats and blankets sold
in Arequipa. Their aim: selling their products directly to the European market. Like the llama, the alpaca
is a domesticated species of South American camelid
typical of the Andes. The vicuña and huanaco are their
wild “cousins.”
“The vicuña, like the alpaca, appears on the Peruvian
coat of arms as an example of the richness of our wildlife, next to a tree and a cornucopia, resources from our
plant life and mines,” says Hamlet Aza, who runs the
incentive program for alpaca farmers in Ocongate and
Marcapata.
In Tinke, Hamlet meets with farmers Wilmer Maza
and José Apalza and the veterinarian Victor Pimentel,
who are planning to shear the dozens of alpacas grazing nearby. “Alpacas are useful because of the fiber in
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their wool. They can be sheared annually for six years.
They can also be used for food. Barbecued alpaca is a
delicacy in Peruvian cuisine,” says Pimentel. “The road
has brought many benefits. It has brought us closer to
the buyers.”
Suddenly, the road starts to climb again. Safe and
well-signposted, the asphalt Interoceanic Highway
built in nearly five years by heroic workers leads to
Pirhuayani, which lies at an altitude of 4,725 meters.
Indigenous alpaca farmer Marcusa Huamán is accustomed to the rarefied air. For her, it is quite natural. She
gives her hand to her son Franklin, age 8, and quickly
crosses the highway to reach a higher point. “The road
is beautiful and makes our lives easier,” she says.
Marcapata is the next stop. It is a village that practices indigenous customs 2,900 meters above sea level. That is where the church of San Francisco, which is
over 300 years old, has been renovated with financial
assistance from Conirsa to make the village even more
attractive for tourists.
Into the Amazon jungle
Now the only way is downhill - literally. As we get
closer to sea level, the arid Andes disappear and green
plains emerge, followed by Puerto Maldonado (population: 40,000), in the heart of the Amazon, where
the altitude is just 180 meters. That is the scenery that
accompanies the travelers in the miles to come. San
Francisco is the name of the village where cocoa growing is the main occupation. It is just after the Madre de
Dios River Bridge, near the now bustling port city of
Puerto Maldonado, where cars, trikes, trucks, airlines
and hotels are multiplying.
“The highway has changed our lives,” says
Estanislao Curinambe, President of the Cocoa
Growers’ Technical Association in the Department
of Madre de Dios, an organization made up of more
than 300 farmers. According to Curinambe, production has increased in that region, and the association
even plans to set up a factory to have its own brand
of chocolate. “At the moment, we sell cocoa to two
Peruvian factories, but we will have our own chocolate, our own brand for export to several countries.
The new highway has strengthened our ambitions and
improved the quality of life of this region.”
Ten kilometers away, Victor Zambrano Diaz,
66, takes pride in saying that he was born in Puerto
Maldonado. He owns a small property on the
Tambopata River, a tributary of the Madre de Dios,
called the Kerenda Homet Refuge, where he has restored
ππSouthern Interoceanic Highway on the
Brazil-Peru border: a key to binational unity
22
ππEstanislao Curinambe: chocolate for export
the Amazon rainforest and now grows medicinal plants
and flowers for sale. Zambrano explains: “Twenty years
ago, this forest did not exist. Now, we are a model sustainability project. My wife, Rosa, takes care of the
tropical flowers. One of my five children, Kerenda, my
youngest daughter, aged 16, is being groomed to take
over the business.”
Two hours down the road, Peru ends and Brazil
begins. On one side of the bridge over the Acre River,
opened in 2004, we find the Peruvian town of Iñapari.
The Brazilian town of Assis Brasil lies on the other
side. When we reach Brazil, a sign reads: “Rio Branco,
330 km.”
“Rio Branco? I’ve been there, on the Interoceanic
Highway. What a wonderful road. I’ll go there again, but
I plan to visit other parts of Brazil too, like Rio de Janeiro
and São Paulo,” says nursing student Cleofe Medrano,
45. She is standing in the Plaza de Armas in Cuzco,
along with her friend Lilian Bordagallego, an accounting
student, as they get ready for the June festivities.
Cuzco and the fabulous city of Machu Picchu
have featured in American movies and Brazilian
soap operas. Tourists from Brazil, the US, Europe
and Japan flock through the streets of the former
pre-Columbian capital, which was linked to Quito by
the Inca Trail five centuries ago.
Engineer Jorge Barata, a Brazilian born in Salvador,
Bahia, is a 30-year member of Odebrecht. Currently
the CEO of Odebrecht Latinvest (the Group subsidiary created to develop new projects in South America),
he is now based in Lima, and has lived and worked in
Peru, Ecuador and Colombia for 25 years. Looking at
the map of the Southern Interoceanic Highway, after
being closely involved in its construction from start to
finish, he observes: “This roadway has had a local and
regional impact on areas that were previously isolated
from the rest of the country. Everything along its route
has improved. People are traveling more, now that, in
addition to everything else, the Peruvian economy is
booming. Tourism has grown.” ]
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ruta del sol
Written by Luiz Carlos Ramos | Photos by Márcio Lima
Puerto Boyacá, a city with a population of about 60,000,
situated on a scorching plain on the banks of the Magdalena
River, between the Central and Eastern Andes, is experiencing a time of peace and prosperity. The political tensions that wracked this part of Colombia in the 1970s and
80s have given way to economic growth and the drive to
overcome problems on the basis of oil production, livestock
husbandry and tourism. And Puerto Boyacá’s new prospects have everything to do with the certainty that, once
the Ruta del Sol (Route of the Sun) highway is completed
in 2016, that route will provide a much faster and safer way
of reaching the capital, Bogota, and other major cities, such
as Medellín and Bucaramanga, as well as the Caribbean
ports of Cartagena, Santa Marta and Barranquilla. Starting
out from historic Simon Bolivar Plaza in Bogota, 2,630 meters above sea level, the Odebrecht Informa team traveled
to Puerto Salgar, which lies at an altitude of just 177 meters.
After a 195 km descent along a winding road, we reached
the Ruta del Sol. That experience that will remain forever
etched in our memories.
Colombia, a country of 47 million inhabitants, has 32
departments (the equivalent of states or provinces). The
city of Puerto Boyacá, in the Department of Boyacá, is traversed by the future Ruta del Sol, currently Route 45. The
original roadway is being modernized while the second
part of the new divided highway, which is 1,071 km long,
is under construction. Section 2, the largest part of the
project, is 528 km long. It runs between Puerto Salgar and
San Roque, and is being built by Consórcio Ruta del Sol, a
joint venture with two Colombian construction companies, Episol (Corficolombiana) and Constructora Carlos
Solarte, led by Odebrecht.
Public debates among government officials, businesspeople and community representatives from Puerto
ππParticipants in the transit and heavy traffic education campaign on the Ruta del Sol: safety and
development
24
Boyacá, with the support of Mayor Fernando Rubio
López, have helped deal with issues related to quality of life and the environment. “We could see the economic advantages of the Ruta del Sol. New hotels and
restaurants are arriving. But we asked the Ministry of
Transport to include access to the city from two lanes
of the highway to prevent accidents and boost tourism,
because we have beautiful places to visit in our town,”
says Councilman Héctor Eduardo Lesmes Martinez, 44,
a cattle rancher.
For now, due to heavy traffic on the highway, including oil and gas tankers, the 282-km drive from Bogota
to Puerto Boyacá takes 6 hours. The 853-km trip to
Cartagena is a grueling 16 hours long. That driving time
will be significantly reduced, predicts Lesmes Martinez,
who is encouraging the community to organize road
safety campaigns. With the help of the Military Police,
one of those events turns into a joyous theater session
for 20 young people between the ages of 14 and 28 from
the Communities United group, who distribute flyers
and point out traffic signals. Jhonatas Mosquera, Diego
Cabezas, Julika Ku and Kelly Garzón dramatize the fictitious story of a motorcyclist who gets a warning from a
policeman for not wearing a helmet.
The river and the road
The Magdalena River runs through Colombia from
north to south and follows the route of the highway. The
signs of small roadside restaurants list the local culinary
attractions: soup, meat or fish (catfish), rice, beans, patacón (fried green plantains), avocado salad and, of course,
arepa, traditional Colombian cornbread.
In the Km 25 district, 10 kilometers from
Puerto Boyacá, about 300 people are taking part in
Community Fellowship Day, where the Colombian
Army and Military Police are helping the joint venture
answer questions about the highway and offer medical and dental check-ups, as well as haircuts and shoe
repairs. Sergeant Abraham Rojas has brought along
10 soldiers, a doctor and a dentist from his regiment:
“Bringing the military and civilians closer together has
been a healthy experience,” says Rojas. Medical doctor
Maria Quintero and dentist Caterine Sanchez are taking care of dozens of patients.
In Puerto Salgar, a small public school in the
Department of Cundinamarca once stood in the way
of the road works. Past tense. It is no longer there: the
building has been demolished to make way for the second half of the divided highway. But Consórcio Ruta del
Sol has already replaced it with a spacious new school
equipped with a cafeteria and gym, just 100 yards from
the highway.
Beatriz Santos, the principal of that school, the
Policarpa Salavarrieta Educational Institute, Rural
Headquarters of San Cayetano, is very pleased. While
visiting the air-conditioned school building that will
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R o a d s
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ππCouncilman Hector Lesmes: more safety and
tourism for Puerto Boyacá
house her students, she predicts: “They will like it.
Everything is improved. We will even be able to increase
the number of students, which is currently around 50,
between the ages of 4 and 15. The highway has improved
tremendously. So has the region.”
The students live on farms, and go to school on a
bus driven by Mary Luz Rondón. Her son, Jesus David,
aged 10, is one of those students and wanted to see the
new building. “He loved it,” she says.
RUTA DEL SOL
Santa Marta
Valledupar
San Roque
Puerto Boyacá
Located in a major oil
producing and ranching
region, it has overcome
political tensions and is
growing along with
the highway.
COLOMBIA
Aguachica
New days in La Fortuna,
Barrancabermeja and San Alberto
La Fortuna, a village located near the access to the
more developed town of Bucaramanga, in Santander
Department, tells the stories of people who had to
move into new homes because of the road works. This
was the case with the Hernandez family, who are now
comfortably installed in four-bedroom home. “We
used to live near the site where the bridge is being built
across the Sogamoso River,” says Robinson Hernandez,
accompanied by his wife, Esmeralda, and their two
children, Sergio, 6, and Esmeralda, 10. “I had a bar and
two pool tables there. My workplace. Then the expropriation came, I received compensation, put it together
with my savings, built the house and bought a dump
truck.” The family agrees that they are living in a better
place, and now Robinson is looking for construction
projects that can use his truck. When completed, the
new Sogamoso Bridge will be 734 m long.
26
Puerto Salgar
Close to the Magdalena River,
this town is connected to
Bogota and marks the
beginning of the stretch
of the Ruta del Sol that leads
to northern Colombia.
Rota
do Sol
San Alberto
Barrancabermeja
San Alberto
Situated next to the
Barrancabermeja oil refinery
and the bustling city of
Bucaramanga, it preserves
local habits and historic
customs, especially
the cuisine.
Aguachica
Puerto Boyacá
Puerto Salgar
Bogotá
In northern Colombia, it is
part of the flatlands between
two chains of the Andes
Mountains, on the way to
the coast.
San Roque
The end of the stretch under
the responsibility of the Ruta
del Sol concessionaire, it is
linked to the Caribbean cities
of Santa Marta, Barranquilla
and Cartagena.
ππEvangelista Arias in his candy store:
“More kids are coming in.” Above,
community members take part in the transit
education campaign
Barrancabermeja, the home of the nation’s largest
oil refinery, shows clear signs of progress. The highway
will facilitate the arrival of oil trucks and the shipment
of gasoline to the rest of the country.
As we travel northward, the landscape changes.
There are more and more palm trees – another source of
wealth, through the production of palm oil. Evangelista
Arias Jiménez, 60, is disabled and lives in San Alberto.
He does not hide his joy at having his own candy store
that is very popular with children. “It’s much better
here,” he says, while selling sweets to Nicole Inara, 8,
who has come in with four younger cousins. “My old
store on the edge of the highway was smaller. I rent this
building, and the joint venture contractor that’s building
the highway provided the counters and cabinets. More
kids are coming in to buy candy,” he explains.
In addition to the rehabilitation of the old roadway and the construction of the second part of the divided highway, bridges and overpasses, which began in
2011, this part of the project is scheduled for completion by 2016. The joint venture’s mission is to maintain
this stretch for a period of up to 25 years. Odebrecht
Colombia CEO Eleuberto Martorell, explains: “The Ruta
del Sol is the most important road corridor in the country, because it connects Bogota and all major cities to
the ports of Cartagena, Barranquilla and Santa Marta,
running through a region responsible for about 70%
of the national GDP. Colombia’s main export products
– oil, coal and coffee – are shipped to their destinations on this route. The project will fuel the economy
by developing industry, commerce and tourism, with
the resulting creation of job opportunities.” Under the
leadership of Eder Paolo Ferracuti, Ruta del Sol currently
has nearly 800 people taking care of the operation and
maintenance of the highway. The Consol joint venture
contractor is working on two fronts, North and South,
led respectively by Project Directors Ricardo Paredes
and Marcelo Piller, who have over 4,000 people on their
teams to build the second part of the divided highway
and refurbish the existing road.
Section 2 of the Ruta del Sol ends in San Roque
and will be connected to Section 3 and the roads that
run alongside the Pacific and the Atlantic coasts. On
Colombia’s Caribbean shores, the plain meets the high
Sierra Nevada mountains. The road traverses Aracataca,
the town where Gabriel García Márquez was born in
1927. The winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, he is
the author of some of the greatest masterpieces of Latin
American and world literature. There are times on this
journey when the landscape reminds you of the magical realism of the fictional village of Macondo in One
Hundred Years of Solitude. And it is just as thrilling as
the novel. ]
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panamA-colón
Written by João Marcondes | Photos by Celso Doni
A hot, humid Caribbean wind is blowing in Colón.
On the streets, everyone is decked out in their finest
clothes to welcome the young Queen of Great Britain,
Elizabeth II. The women are wearing elegant widebrimmed hats, and the men have donned impeccable
suits, even though the temperature is over 30ºC. The
royal visit is eagerly awaited by subjects of the British
Empire, immigrants from nearby islands. There is a frisson in the streets of this beautiful town with its French
colonial architecture (similar to the mansions and balconies of New Orleans), and the main attractions, suchas the Rex and Lido theaters, are reminiscent of
Parisian soirées. Because of its wealth, Colón is known
as the Tacita de Oro (Little Gold Cup). It is the Atlantic
end of the Panama Canal.
The Queen’s visit took place way back in 1953, 60 years
ago. That Colón no longer exists. That world no longer exists. Even so, the city now has 280,000 inhabitants and is still an important hub, the gateway to the
Atlantic for Panama (while the capital, Panama City, is
the gateway to the Pacific), and one of the most vibrant
commercial centers in the world.
One of the main problems for Colón in the last
six decades used to be the lack of a safe and fast route
to Panama City. But now it is about to relive its glory
days with the opening of the Panama-Colón Highway,
officially named the Don Alberto Motta Cardoze
Highway in honor of a prominent local businessman.
Built by Odebrecht, the route is one of the most modern roadways in Latin America and runs alongside
the Panama Canal through a breathtaking landscape.
Its nickname has already caught on in that country:
Panamanians call it the “Dry Canal.”
Before the “Dry Canal” opened, there were just
two ways to travel that route by land: on the old railroad used primarily for cargo, and the Trans-Isthmus
Highway, a two-way route with no shoulders where
landslides are a constant threat, sometimes closing the
road for months. Another problem with this route was
the heavy truck traffic - a major challenge, especially for
people who commute between the two cities every day.
This is the case with the sales clerk Marysabel Veliz
Chanis, 51. She works in Colón’s Free Trade Zone (the
second largest in the world, a veritable walled city full of
tax-free shops inside Colón), and lives in Panama City.
Marysabel endured the commute on the Trans-Isthmus
Highway for 23 years. How did she feel the first time
she drove on the Panama-Colón? “It was a joy. A wonderful thing,” she says. She used to leave home every
day at dawn and only got back at night. Not any more.
Now she can sit down and read the newspaper, enjoy a
leisurely breakfast (her favorite pastime), watch the first
ππMarysabel Veliz, who works in Colón and lives in Panama City: “It was a joy. A wonderful thing”
28
ππPanama-Colón Highway, the “Dry Canal”:
40-minute drive between the Atlantic and Pacific
beams of the rising sun gleam through her window, and
chat with her 97-year-old grandmother before leaving home. When she gets back, the sun is still shining.
“Now I have a life,” she says with a smile.
On the Trans-Isthmus Highway, her commute took
two and a half hours. Now it takes just forty minutes. A
Mexican company started building the Panama-Colón
project, but it came to a standstill and stayed that way
for quite some time. Odebrecht built the highway from
Km 13 onward and paved over 46 kilometers in two
stages as far as the entrance to Colón. It delivered the
final stretch a year ago.
Natural lushness
The landscape along the new highway is stunning,
because its route runs through National Sovereignty
Park. The dark green foliage of that tropical rain forest fringes the modern divided highway (two lanes in
each direction, with wide shoulders). There is also an
abundance of wildlife, which can use the 3-m-high
tunnels built beneath the road to ensure that they can
get across safely. Fences are also in place to prevent
them from running into traffic and being hit by cars.
The fauna is rich and inspiring, characteristic of a region that lies between two oceans: cougars, iguanas,
hawks, toucans, sloths, deer and crocodiles.
Because the “Dry Canal” runs through two environmental protection areas and past Gatun Lake, it
was built according to the strictest standards of environmental compliance. For example, noise, vibration and air quality levels were continually monitored
during construction. Twice the area cleared for construction has been reforested (a total of 500 hectares,
according to the concept of environmental compensation). Invasive plants introduced during the construction of the Panama Canal have been replaced with native forest.
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ππManuel Vasquez and his son Angel: more family time
Today the dreaded traffic jams that increased
driving time to three hours in each direction are a
thing of a past that no one wants to remember. The
new highway is traveled by 500,000 cars per month,
as well as 60,000 trucks carrying containers of goods
bound for the Free Zone. And the traffic flows quietly, smoothly and safely. The story of a merchant
who had a flat tire when he was driving on the new
route has gone viral. He no sooner got out of his car
and started fiddling with the complicated tools than
a road rescue team turned up and changed the tire
in a heartbeat. Surprised and happy, he pulled out
his wallet and asked, “What do I owe you, sir?” The
answer: “Nothing, we are here to serve you.” It became an ad campaign.
“Everyone who drives this route enjoys the highest
level of road safety you can find in the world,” says Jorge
Salazar, Operations and Maintenance Manager of the
Madden Colón Concessionaire, the Odebrecht company that manages the highway. There are 45 cameras in
the section the company built, that is, almost one per kilometer. The average response time to a service call (for
mechanics, ambulances, etc.) is less than 10 minutes.
“The construction of this road was a dream that
the Panamanians nurtured for over 20 years. We are
happy we made it come true,” says Ricardo Bisca, the
PANAMA-COLÓN HIGHWAY
Colón
Colón
Caribbean
Sea
This is the Atlantic end of the
Panama Canal.
It boasts beautiful French-ins
pired architecture,
extensive logistics facilities, and
a busy port.
It is a shopper’s paradise, beca
use it houses the
second largest Free Trade Zone
in the world.
Trans-Isthm
ic H
ighw
ay
Panam
y
wa
igh
nH
oló
a-C
Panama
Canal
Panama City
The nation’s capital and the Pacifi
c Ocean end
of the Canal, it has a distinctive
skyline
characterized by modern mirro
red high-rises.
Its sophisticated restaurants
and hotels are
among its main attractions, as
well as Casco
Viejo, the Historic District.
Panama
City
Pacific Ocean
30
Odebrecht Project Director for the third stage of the
road works (the Colón Corridor) who also participated in
the two phases of the project that have already been delivered. “Colón has a very strong logistics sector because
of the port and the Free Trade Zone. And now that it can
harness its tourist potential, the city will be restored.
There are gorgeous beaches here that have always been
empty because they were so hard to reach,” he says.
Entering the city is easy now, thanks to the highway,
but the access road is still narrow, squeezed between
the Free Trade Zone and the railway tracks. Odebrecht
is widening it, building larger roads and interchanges
totaling 12 km of accessibility and urban development
works at the entrance to town. It is the Colón Corridor,
the icing on the cake, which will be delivered in 2014.
More family time
Because the essence of the umbilical link between
these two cities is still based on commerce, the highway’s main beneficiaries, in addition to residents and
users of the Free Trade Zone, have been truck drivers
who used to risk their lives on the road every day. This
was the case with Manuel Vasquez, 43, who can finally
do his job safely. Relief is written all over his face.
That is the feeling he describes as his truck rides
smoothly over the asphalt on the Don Alberto Motta
Cardoze Highway. It is more like joy for his wife, Angelica
Moraes, 32, and their two children, Angel, 8, and Anton,
2, who is just starting to talk.
Manuel and his family go for road trips on the
weekends in their own car. He only drives to Panama
City to take the kids to the multiplex cinemas and the
Cinta Costera (an area replete with parks, and sports
and recreation facilities built by Odebrecht on the city’s
oceanfront beltway). They also go to lunch at Pio Pio,
little Angel’s favorite restaurant, which serves breaded
chicken with fries. “It had been a long time since we’d
seen our relatives who live outside Panama City, in the
countryside. It was very hard to get there before the
highway,” says Angelica.
Now her husband, Manuel, can pick their eightyear-old up from school - which, incidentally, is located on a roadway connected to the Panama-Colón. Now
it takes just ten minutes to get from there to his home
on the side of the highway in the modest Nueva Italia
neighborhood, surrounded by rain forest. Everything is
easier now. Bit by bit, life seems to be getting onto the
right track in the city of Colón. ]
ππPanama City: the gateway to the Pacific, now closer to Colón, one of the world’s most vibrant
commercial hubs
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Corredor Vial del Este
Written by João Marcondes Photos by Celso Doni
The sun still shines 365 days a year (except for occasional refreshing rain showers), but in the old
days, the high walls that now conceal the view of
the city of Bavaro’s heavenly beaches weren’t there.
Leonardo Castillo used to run and play in the fields
as a child. The bright green leaves were so big that
the boy could hide behind them.
They were fields of tobacco, a traditional crop
in those fertile lands bordering the Caribbean Sea.
Dominican cigars were already good 30 years ago,
but today, some dare say they are even better than
Cubans. But the tobacco fields are gone, and the
walls surround the area’s famous all-inclusive resorts.
On the side of the road, among all these attractions, there is a handmade cigar factory owned by
Leonardo Castillo, now 42 years old. “A cigar is only
worthwhile if it’s made by hand,” says the small business owner. He does not complain that resorts have
replaced the former plantations. On the contrary.
It is essential for tourists to visit Bavaro and Punta
Cana, the Dominican Republic’s most popular destinations. Castillo is eagerly awaiting the completion
of the Corredor Vial del Este (Eastern Road Corridor),
a major project that will ensure that this part of the
country is connected by modern highways.
An important section of that corridor, the 70km Autopista del Coral, opened in 2012, improving the lives of thousands of Dominicans, including
Castillo. He gets the tobacco leaves he uses to make
his elegant Charles Parker cigars in the north and
northwest, passing through Santo Domingo. The
new route has reduced his travel time by two hours.
The next step is to turn Castillo’s store into a puro
tasting lounge, a more sophisticated type of establishment.
The Corredor Vial del Este is made up of five
sections, and Odebrecht is responsible for their
construction. Four are being built and one has already been completed. The first segment connects
San Pedro de Macoris (a town located just outside
the capital, Santo Domingo) to La Romana and is 34
km long. The second is the 14 km half-beltway that
runs around La Romana, avoiding the town’s gridlocked traffic. Next there is the Autopista del Coral,
opened in 2012 and hailed as the best road in the
country. It is 70 km long.
The following section, Boulevard Turistico del
Este (BTE), is over 30 km long and connects the
32
nation’s two main tourist towns, Bavaro and Punta
Cana. All these stretches will be open to traffic
by November 2013. And then comes the 110-km
Miches Highway, which runs from Bavaro to Sabana
del Mar.
“Tourism is our oil,” says Public Works and
Communications Minister Gonzalo Castillo.
Currently, the country receives about 4.5 million
tourists a year. He wants to increase that number to
10 million; perhaps even 12 million in 10 years. The
Corredor Vial del Este is a key part of that plan, since
it will link the beaches to Santo Domingo. That city
has a rich historic heritage, including Christopher
Columbus’s first house in the Americas, but its
tourist potential has not been developed because it
is hard to reach. There is a breathtaking part of the
Dominican Republic that begins in the capital, Santo
Domingo, and reveals itself on the roads to Bavaro
and Sabana del Mar further on. It needs to be discovered.
Flavors, aromas and art
On the road, in San Pedro de Macoris, the first
Dominican flavors start to emanate. The scents
of sweet fruits, similar to those found in the
Northeast of Brazil, such as soursops and mangoes.
The roadside vendor Minerva Gomes, 43, points
out that the construction work going on beside her,
which will transform a badly paved road into a major two-way highway, promises to improve her livelihood. “When I don’t sell, I don’t eat. Bring in the
tourists!” exclaims Minerva, as she enjoys a juicy
sapodilla.
Just ahead, in the small community of Cumayaso,
a town of 3,000, travelers can enjoy an almost anthropological experience of the “deepest DR.” In this
village of unpainted houses, they will find an association of local artisans and see the delicate objects
created by elderly women and young señoritas.
They are led by the Association’s president,
Maria Estela David, who coyly whispers her age
into the reporter’s ear so the others won’t hear,
amid curious looks and laughter. (She is 42.) She
has been a nurse and school teacher, but now what
she really likes to do is lead the 30 talented women who use all sorts of materials - plastic bottles,
glass, straw, paper, shells, stones, bird feathers, wire
and fabric – to create decorative objects, clothes,
ornaments and bags.
ππLeonardo Castillo: “A cigar is only worthwhile if it’s made by hand”
Odebrecht informa
33
R o a d s
o f
t h e
A m e r i c a s
ππClean, inviting beaches that enchant and inspire:
a postcard from the Dominican Republic
CORREDOR VIAL DEL ESTE
Santo Domingo
“I am an interior designer,” says Estela. She
expects the number of tourists to grow and sees
her cooperative’s products taking off around the
world. “I want to export them,” she says. Active
for 10 years, the cooperative has recycled the road
construction workers’ uniforms to make stylish
handbags.
We hit the road again, driving past rice fields,
cattle ranches, cornfields, mangroves and coconut
groves. As well as the beautiful Caribbean beaches. We are now reaching Punta Cana, a town that
attracts most of the millions of tourists who visit the country. Punta Cana is a strong brand in the
Dominican Republic. Combining it with Santo
Domingo is all that is needed to reach the milestone
of visitors Minister Castillo wants.
Businesspeople are thankful. Folks like Luisa
Patrovita, 77, from Turin, Italy. Born near the Alps,
she now heads the most popular Italian restaurant
34
The nation’s capital, considered the first city in the
“New World” discovered by Christopher Columbus
in 1492. Its attractions include the well-preserved
Colonial Zone, with its museums, restaurants,
dance spots and handicraft shops. Its population is
less than 2.2 million.
Sabana
de la Mar
San Pedro de Macorís
DOMINICAN
REPUBLIC
Miches
Bávaro
Corredor Vial
del Este
La Romana
Santo
Domingo
San Pedro
de Macorís
A former fishing village, this is where the stretch
of the road corridor built by Odebrecht begins. It is
famous for the fruit sold on the roadside, such as
sapodillas, mangoes and soursops. San Pedro is
close to the town of Cumayaso and its
Seamstresses’ Association, which boasts one of
the finest collections of Dominican handicrafts.
Punta Cana
Punta
Cana
Boca de
Yuma
The most famous beach resort town in the DR,
next to Bávaro, which is 30 km away. Tourists
from the world over flock to its all-inclusive
resorts, enjoying crystal clear waters and
attractions like Leonardo Castillo’s hand-made
cigar factory (in Punta Cana) and Mama Luisa’s
Italian cuisine (in Bávaro).
Sabana de la Mar
Caribbean
Sea
A town on the northern end of the corridor, it
offers heavenly, little-used beaches and is
expected to grow as a result of the highway’s
arrival. This charming community was founded by
Spanish immigrants from the Canary Islands.
Social changes
As the road goes on toward Miches, you realize that this vast artery connecting the country’s
roadways is bringing social change by awakening
the economy to new possibilities. The fisherman
Miguel Angel Mercedes, 49, had to move out of his
wooden shack to make way for the highway. He is
married to Nirza Pacce, a 48-year-old homemaker, with whom he has three children. At first, they
were suspicious, but moving into a new and better-organized all-masonry home with a septic tank
and a yard big enough to start a plant nursery was
the first step towards improving their daily lives.
“It’s the first time in my life that I’ve had a bathroom inside the house,” says Nirza.
She and her husband live near the sea, in a
beautiful spot. Even so, Miguel is still not satisfied. He rents a harpoon to catch lobsters and
groupers, and leases a boat. He has to sell his entire catch to the owner of the equipment at low
on the island, Mama Luisa. She used to be married
to the son of the Dominican ambassador to Italy
and learned the restaurant business from her father, who was known as the Prince of the Volcano
because he ran hotels and restaurants in a village
overshadowed by a lava-spewing mountain.
Although she and her husband have since divorced, she moved to Punta Cana with her children, including Joaquin Salazar, who owns four other restaurants on the island. Autopista del Coral has
changed their lives. “We got into the business 17
years ago. In those days we had to deal with storms
on the dirt roads.” Currently, most of their customers come from further away, including towns like
La Romana. “Now you can get there and back in the
same day. In just over an hour. That’s not how it used
to be,” he explains.
The drive to Santo Domingo (from Punta) used
to take four hours. Now it takes two and a half.
When the La Romana beltway opens in November,
travel time will be reduced even further – to 90
minutes. Mama Luisa’s delicious risottos, pasta
and Italian desserts will be even easier to reach.
ππMaria Estela David: using recycled materials to
make decorative items, ornaments, clothes and
accessories
Odebrecht informa
35
R o a d s
o f
t h e
A m e r i c a s
ππMama Luis Restaurant in Punta Cana, and a roadside fruit stand: the Dominican Republic is a country that should
be discovered slowly, exploring all its nooks and crannies
prices. “Today it’s the only work, actually the only
kind of work there is around here,” he says. “My
income is low because one person controls it,” he
sighs. But his eyes shine when he talks about the
construction of the Miches Highway, which is energizing small communities like La Vacama, where
he lives (he is part of the estimated population of
a thousand people) and Lagunas de Nisibón (right
next door, with 5,000 people). “Yes, we do hope
the highway will bring more tourists to these
beaches. And more hotels. That's a job opportunity right there,” he says, clearly thrilled by the
prospect.
Marco Cruz, Odebrecht’s CEO in the Dominican
Republic, observes: “The Corredor Vial del Este is
a project that the public has been eagerly awaiting for over a decade. There have been previous
attempts, but nothing came of them,” he explains.
All told, the sections the company has built or is
currently building add up to 258 km of safe, modern roadways that will make travel easier in one of
the most beautiful and welcoming countries in the
world. Roads that have created more than 3,000
job opportunities in the Dominican Republic. And
connect some of the most beautiful beaches of the
Caribbean with the well-preserved colonial-style
capital, excellent rum, and fish and seafood stewed
in coconut milk. As well as Leonardo Castillo’s
Charles Parker cigars. And Maria Estela’s clothes.
And Mama Luisa’s pasta. ]
36
ππBruce Hillegeist: support for local development
grand parkway
Written by Eliana Simonetti | Photos by Lia Lubambo/Lusco
Friday, June 21, 2013. Summer begins in the Northern
Hemisphere. At 5 o’clock in the afternoon, in a
small community called Woodlands, which is part
of the metropolitan area of Houston, Texas, but 80
km from the city center, the temperature reaches
35°C. There is no wind, and the cloudless sky is
light blue, almost transparent. Entire families start
to gather in a small park on Market Street, bringing chairs, rugs and coolers. A group of boys turns
on the sound equipment and provides the musical
background for the event. People eat, dance and
play ball. As the sun sets and the moon rises on
the horizon, the atmosphere on Market Street is
relaxed. There is complete harmony among children, young people and seniors; among blonds, redheads, brunettes and people of Asian and African
descent. This goes on until 9 pm, when the sun
disappears and the families gather up their things
and head home.
Some might think that this was a party held
to celebrate the arrival of summer. But it was not.
Market Street is a gathering place every day of
the week. Residents of Woodlands and the other seven towns that make up Greater Houston live
in neighborhoods that resemble the private gated
communities found in Brazil. They are the suburbs
Odebrecht informa
37
R o a d s
o f
t h e
A m e r i c a s
ππBuildings in downtown Houston: the most populous city in Texas, with 2 million inhabitants
of American cities. The homes are spacious, and
adorned with manicured gardens. The streets are
virtually empty. But that does not mean the residents are not sociable. Very much the opposite.
They take great pleasure in socializing in their
community’s parks and plazas.
Houston is the most populous city in the
state of Texas and the fourth most populous in
the United States, with 2 million inhabitants. The
metropolitan area of Greater Houston is the sixth
largest in the country, with a population of about 5
million people whose annual income per person is
over USD 20,000.
Most residents are middle class, upper middle class, or at the top of the wealth pyramid. They
value quality of life, family living, and contact with
nature and the outdoors. “Here we say that celebrities who want to appear in the social columns live
in Dallas or Austin, two other major cities in Texas.
If you have money and want the good life, go live in
Houston,” says Antonio Merritt, the administrator
38
of David Wayne Hooks Airport, the private airport
in the town of Spring, also in Greater Houston.
Founded in 1963, “Hooks” has six runways for
small aircraft (up to 60 passenger jets), 200 hangars
full of airplanes and helicopters, and a school for
pilots. Who uses this airport? Actor Harrison Ford
and investor Jim Robertson, for starters. But that is
strictly hush hush.
The Lone Star State
Spring is closer to Houston than Woodlands:
about 32 km away. It has just over 50,000 residents. One corner of that town merits special attention. It is like an open air mall where all the
stores are replicas of buildings from the days of the
Wild West. Some of these shops give a better idea
of what it means to be Texan. There are welcome
signs for visitors - framed with barbed wire. And
flags, lots of them, but not the Stars and Stripes.
They are the flag of Texas, with just one star. Texas
is known as the Lone Star state.
Why? Well, just look back at its history. In addition to Native Americans, Spain, France, Mexico
have occupied the region, which was war torn for
nearly two centuries. In 1839, Texas became an
independent republic whose president, Samuel
Houston, was a military strategist who played a key
role in the struggle against the Spaniards, Mexicans
and French.
Sam Houston was a man of many parts. Born
into a family of merchants, he lost his parents
when he was a young man, quit school and refused
to run his father’s business. Apparently, he had an
adventurous spirit because he went to live near the
territory of the Cherokee, who tended to ally with
the Mexicans against any Europeans who came to
settle near their lands. Sam learned the Cherokee
nation’s language, habits and customs. He married
a Native American woman and came to be regarded as part of the tribe. As a result, he obtained the
Cherokees’ support in the Texan struggle for independence.
The port city of Houston was the capital of the
Republic of Texas until 1840. The region’s economy developed, based mainly on ranching. A vast
railway network ran through the state, which facilitated the settlement of the West. In 1845, Texas
was annexed to the United States, becoming the
28th state to join the Union and flying the Lone
Star flag. In a way, it kept its individuality.
Around that time, a group of German immigrants arrived in Houston. The Hillegeist family
was among them. The Government of Texas gave
land to settlers who were willing to work it, and the
Hillegeists wasted no time. They raised dairy cattle
and established two fine ranches.
The first house the family built is still standing,
but the three descendants of the first immigrants
are no longer involved in dairy farming or ranching.
They recently sold their property to the State of
Texas in a move aimed at boosting the region’s urban expansion and economic development. “I think
we did an important thing by giving up our property to make room for and support local development,” argues Bruce Hillegeist, who is the President
of the Chamber of Commerce of Tomball, another
town in Greater Houston.
In 1901, oil was discovered in Texan soil.
Industry flourished, highways multiplied, and the
ports gained importance. The capital of Texas at
that point was Austin, but Houston remained rich
and powerful. Tomball was born in 1907, growing up around a train station. Now it has just over
18,000 inhabitants in the central part of town most with average annual incomes of USD 35,000
to USD 50,000. It is part of the Texan “energy
corridor,” thanks to the oil companies established
there.
Currently, Baker Hughes is setting up a brand
new training center for 66,000 workers in Tomball.
Not far away, ExxonMobil is building a plant that will
employ more than 10,000 people, mostly engineers
and researchers looking into new technologies. The
real estate industry is booming because 2,000 houses are being built for ExxonMobil’s staff alone.
GRAND PARKWAY
Grand Parkway
F–2
G
249B
Houston
This is the most populou
s city in Texas and
the fourth largest in the
United States, with 2
million inhabitants. It is
home to the Texas
Medical Center, which con
tains the largest
number of hospitals and
medical research
centers in the world. It is
also the address of
NASA’s mission control
center, the Lyndon
Johnson Space Center.
69
H
F–1
Spring
45
Kingwood
59
249
290
I–1
90
E
Katy
Houston
99
69
I–2
225
45
6
8
59
D
Richmond
Fresno
Trinity
Bay
Pearland
35
288
A
6
C
Metropolitan region
10
90
B
Hitchcock
Galveston
Bay
Greater Houston is the sixth
-largest
metropolitan region in the
US, with eight
counties and nearly 5 milli
on residents whose
annual per capita income
is over USD 20,000.
Swampland
Most of Houston is built
on swampland, which
explains the large number
of interchanges in
the city’s landscape. The
stretches of the
Grand Parkway that will
be built by the
Zachry-Odebrecht Park
way Builders (ZOPB)
joint venture – F1, F2 and
G, as shown on the
map – include areas whic
h are just 13 meters
above sea level.
Odebrecht informa
39
R o a d s
o f
t h e
A m e r i c a s
ππResidents relaxing in Market Street, a gathering place for young and old in Woodlands:
snapshot of a lifestyle
In addition to a large industrial park (the
city is second only to New York in terms of the
number of headquarters of major corporations),
Houston is home to the Texas Medical Center the largest complex of medical and research institutions in the world - and NASA’s Lyndon B.
Johnson Space Center. In short, Houston exudes
intelligence and wealth.
A unique lifestyle
But this is Texas, and even in a commercial hub
it is unusual to find men wearing suits and ties.
Those items of apparel hang in a corner of the office, worn only on special occasions. If the temperature in the city is as low as 7ºC or even as high
as 35ºC, men will still be seen wearing boots, many adorned with spurs, as well as hats, plaid shirts
and belts with large buckles adorned with the Lone
40
Star emblem. “Here we stick to our traditions. We
still close deals with a handshake. Contracts are
just a formality,” says investor Jim Robertson, who
divides his time between Woodlands and Toronto,
Canada.
These are people with country roots who
still enjoy close contact with the soil, the feeling of freedom and wide open spaces. That is
why Houston does not grow vertically: the only
office buildings are in the city center. It expands
horizontally in concentric circles of suburbs
adorned with spacious homes. Spreading out
in that circular pattern, the city boasts several shopping and recreation facilities so families
have easy access to everything they need. And
everywhere you look there are parks, gardens,
golf courses, and tennis and basketball courts for public use.
ππThe Jordan family (Heather and Stephen, with their children Angsly and Anthony): the
certainty of a peaceful and ever easier life
Odebrecht informa
41
R o a d s
o f
t h e
A m e r i c a s
Generally speaking, residents of Greater Houston
work from 8 am to 5 pm. Then the workday ends.
It’s time to go home and spend time with the family. Unlike other Americans, they actually cook dinner, the meal that brings parents and children together around the table. Not that Houston lacks all sorts
of fast food outlets, but they don’t eat burgers and
fries every day, which could explain why you hardly
ever see obese people in that city. And Sunday is the
day to go to church. Only one symbol competes with
the Lone Star in Houston: the cross. Most Texans
are observant Christians - 60% Catholic and 30%
Protestant.
There is another maxim that is often heard in
Houston: in the city, people replaced their horses with automobiles. Cars are the only means of
transportation. There are no subways or regular
bus lines in the city. Even taxis are rare. And drivers cannot abide the idea of stopping at three traffic
lights on the way between work and home. Because
of that, the streets are wide, with few intersections
and plenty of interchanges, giving the urban area a
very unique, almost futuristic, look. Viewed from
above, it resembles the rings of Saturn.
Third beltway becomes reality
It is in this environment, for these people, that
Odebrecht began working three years ago, looking
for a way to carry out a long-standing plan that
had been shelved: the construction of a third beltway around Houston to ease congestion and divert
trucks from the city streets, enabling horizontal
growth to spread and encouraging more economic
development.
ππWoodlands: access to complete infrastructure for leisure, shopping and services
42
ππArea where the Grand Parkway project is underway: helping reduce congestion by diverting truck traffic from the city
Odebrecht partnered up with the Zachry
Construction Corporation, a local company with
similar values. A family-owned construction company, it was founded 85 years ago. That is how
Zachry-Odebrecht Parkway Builders (ZOPB) was
born. In September 2012, bidding against seven competitors, including major US, Israeli and
European companies, ZOPB won the contract to
build, operate and maintain the three northernmost sections of the Grand Parkway, including
electrical and drainage infrastructure and toll plazas. Initially, Zachry-Odebrecht will operate the
highway for five years, a period that can be extended. “Odebrecht and Zachry are two companies with
consistent, first-class cultures. Our working relationship has been very comfortable,” says Zachry
Vice President Jorge Laris.
The sections under Zachry-Odebrecht’s responsibility total 61 km (including 26 km of bridges) and will be delivered within a period of 30
months, or 845 days, starting from March 22, 2013,
the date the contract was signed with the Texas
Department of Transportation. Ground was broken
on June 24, when the first earthmoving equipment
got to work.
Married for 11 years, Stephen and Heather
Jordan live in the part of Spring called Northcrest
Village. They have two children: Angsly, 8, and
Anthony, 3. Heather is a nurse, and Stephen is
a business manager. The family lives in one of
those homes that look like toy houses, where everything is in the right place. When it is ready,
the Grand Parkway will be practically on their
doorstep. Is that a problem? Not at all. “We are
confident that everything around here will be as
quiet as ever, and we will have a much easier life,”
says Heather. According to her calculations, the
30 minutes it currently takes to drive to the clinic where she works will be reduced to 16 minutes. That is, considering the commute there and
back, she will have 28 more minutes per day to
spend with her children. ]
Odebrecht informa
43
C a m i n h o s
d a
A m é r i c a
ODEBRECHT
HISTORICAL
RESEARCH
CLARIVAL DO PRADO VALLADARES
PRIZE
44
10
years
ENCOURAGING THE DISCOVERY AND PRESERVATION
OF BRAZILIAN HERITAGE AND HISTORY FOR A DECADE
Since 2003, the Odebrecht Historical Research Prize has supported the work
of scholars whose research focuses on original subjects related to Brazilian history.
Every year, a research project is funded by the prize and the results are made
available to the public in the form of a richly illustrated luxury volume.
That way, the Odebrecht Group helps value Brazil’s cultural heritage
and preserve the nation’s memory for future generations.
/premioodebrechthistoria | www.odebrecht.com/pesquisahistorica
Odebrecht informa
45
A rg u m e n t
Affected or benefited?
m a u ro
"IT IS IMPORTANT TO CONDUCT
SOCIOECONOMIC AND
ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES PRIOR
TO BREAKING GROUND”
The spheres of influence of road works: are these regions
affected or benefited? In the past, when a road project was
built in a given region, it was said that it would be “affected” by it. However, based on the perception that they could
add to the strengths of the communities in the areas of influence of the road works, that label was replaced with the
“region benefited” by the new roadways.
Such regions benefit not only because roads ensure the
presence of the state along their entire length, but also because of the socioeconomic development leveraged by the
construction projects themselves. However, extra care is essential. A project’s direct environmental impact on its local communities can create irreversible problems if it is not
carefully assessed and mitigated. It is important to conduct
socioeconomic and environmental studies prior to breaking
h u e b
ground, as well as to partner up with the strategic associations in those regions. The ultimate goal is for the project and the community to engage in a cooperative effort so
both can get the maximum possible benefit.
Recent experiences have shown very positive results.
The Acreditar (Believe) Ongoing Professional Education
program is already an established benchmark initiative. It
is a program aimed at recruiting local people and enabling
them to acquire the job skills required to work in the construction industry. In addition to adding economic value to
each project, the results of this program promote the socioeconomic development of the community in the vicinity
of the construction site. In the past, mass immigration was
inevitable because workers had to be brought in from other parts of the country to work on road projects, leading to
social conflicts.
Another successful experience is the Via School Program,
whose focus is on empowering people who live along the
highway so they can coexist with the road in harmony and
safety when it is fully operational.
In short, road works directly impact their local communities. Those impacts used to be negative – communities
were affected. Today, they are positive – communities are
benefited. ]
Mauro Hueb is the Leader of the Odebrecht Group’s Roadways Knowledge Community
46
I N V E N T O R S
ALWAYS COMING UP
WITH SOMETHING NEW
THE WORK OF BRASKEM’S INVENTORS RESULTED
IN 47 PATENT FILINGS IN 2012, ADDING UP TO A TOTAL
OF 650 REGISTERED PATENTS
Written by Mayara Thomazini | Photos by Ricardo Chaves (RS), Almir Bindilatti (BA) and Edgar Ishikawa (SP)
ππBárbara Mano and Antonio Quental: constant innovation and creativity
Odebrecht informa
47
When you develop something new that is a big hit
on the market, you immediately think about protecting your invention to avoid the risk of having
your product (intellectual or material) copied and
exploited commercially without authority. By law,
the solution is to apply for a grant that confers the
exclusive right to make, use and sell that invention
for a given period – in other words, a patent.
Braskem devotes special attention to the protection of its intellectual capital, and a demonstration of this was the creation in 2002 of the company’s
Industrial Property (IP) program. “In addition to creating, the inventor also has the mission of disseminating the culture of protection of industrial property, setting an example so other company members will also
make an official record of their inventions,” says Eneida
Elias Berbare, the officer Responsible for Intellectual
Property, Information and Knowledge Management, the
area charged with supporting Braskem’s Innovation and
Technology teams.
In 2012, Braskem made 47 patent applications,
17 of which were for new inventions. Thirty requested an extension of patents filed to protect
inventions in previous years. As a result, the company reached the milestone of 650 patents filed in
Brazil and abroad. At the forefront of this growth
are 26 members responsible for inventions patented in 2012. As inventors, they belong to the team
that is making a direct contribution to establishing Braskem as one of Brazil’s most innovative
companies.
Innovation is one of the main ways Braskem
manages to surprise and satisfy its clients, and
therefore better people’s lives. Here are some of
Braskem’s inventors in 2012, professionals who have
innovated and made the difference.
Innovating at work and at home
Antonio Morschbacker, the officer Responsible
for Renewable Technologies, joined Braskem 21
years ago and is one of 26 members who filed patents in 2012. Along with three other members Avram Slovic, Paulo Coutinho and Mateus Schreiner
- he developed a fermentation process for new
products.
Morschbacker leads a team of 31 people whose
work is focused on innovation in the areas of biotechnology and renewable processes. Part of this
team’s work also involves safeguarding the technology for the company’s “green” ethylene plant at
the Triunfo Petrochemical Complex in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. “Since
the plant went online in 2010, we have introduced
48
improvements that are making it increasingly competitive,” he says.
Moschbacker is not just innovative at the workplace. His favorite hobby is growing rare native
fruits, some of which he tends in the greenhouse he
has set up in his home. He also works with botanical gardens like the Plantarum in Nova Odessa, São
Paulo, near the city of Campinas.
No set routine
Antonio Carlos Quental, the Projects Coordinator
on the Polymer Science team at the company’s
Technology and Innovation Center in Triunfo, argues
ππAntonio Morschbacker: introducing improvements
to boost competitiveness
that innovation is one of the pillars that guarantee
Braskem’s perpetuity. “It serves as the basis for our
sustainable growth and sets us apart. The need to innovate keeps up the creativity, agility and flexibility
in the company’s culture.”
The innovation Quental developed in 2012 together with Marcelo Farah and Paula Azeredo, was
conceived with the aim of improving the properties
of a product family in Braskem’s portfolio known
as impact copolymers. A chemist with a Masters
and PhD in Physical Chemistry/Polymers from the
State University at Campinas (Unicamp), and an
eight-year member of Braskem, Quental works with
ππRita Marinho: “Liking what you do is essential”
outstanding people in environments where debate
and discussion are the rule. “When you talk about
the workday you might think it’s routine, but that
is not my experience, because in our projects we are
always breaking paradigms,” explains Quental. When
he is not innovating at work, he likes to spend time
with his family, especially playing with his six-yearold son Matheus.
Daily challenge
Bárbara Mano is also a member of the Polymer
Science team at Triunfo. She joined Braskem over
three years ago and is responsible for the technical
management of projects, seeking innovative solutions. In 2012, Bárbara filed patent applications for
two inventions: one that improves the properties
of the Symbios® family (a terpolymer of propylene,
ethylene and butene developed for the sealing layer
in coextruded film), and another that enhances the
permeation properties of polyolefins. These innovations are the result of work done in conjunction with
several other team members: Adair Rangel, Adriane
Simanke, Ana Paula Azeredo, Cristóvão de Lemos,
Fabiana Carvalho and Márcia Pires.
Exciting and challenging. That is how Bárbara
describes her job. “Because I am part of an innovative team, I constantly refresh and update my
knowledge by reading scientific papers, patents and
press releases issued by the specialized media. It
helps me do my work. I also plan experiments and
conduct the critical analysis of experimental results
to conduct the developments I manage,” she says.
Passionate about her job
Rita Marino, an engineer who specializes in PVC
Process Technology, is a 23-year Braskem member.
Her invention, developed as a team with Camilo
Delfino, Mauro Oviedo, Lucas Polito and Lucas
Horiuchi, was patented in 2012. It involves changing the mechanical properties of PVC, which enables
new applications of the thermoplastic resin. Her
responsibilities include developing new grades, replacing additives, ensuring product quality and developing new technologies and processes to make
the plants more productive.
Rita says her day-to-day routine is very dynamic and interesting. In addition to her job at Braskem,
she liaises with universities to develop projects, and
works with Braskem’s international licensors. “Liking
what you do is essential. I am very tuned into the innovations that come up in society, and I love to find
new ways to reuse objects and find the most practical
way of doing things at home,” says Rita. ]
Odebrecht informa
49
T E C H N O L O G Y A N D I NN O V A T I O N
THE PLACES
WHERE IT ALL BEGINS
BRASKEM’S TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION CENTERS ARE
ENVIRONMENTS CHARACTERIZED BY PARTNERSHIP WITH CLIENTS
AND THE PURSUIT OF TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES
Written by Mayara Thomazini
Lighter, cleaner cars and resistant, sustainable
and even smart packaging; more comfortable
shoes with better quality. The list is already
long, but it still has quite a way to go. In 2012,
Braskem launched 28 new products - the result
of an innovation strategy based on the development of new technologies. In addition to growing the company’s portfolio, this effort has also
increased sales. For example, 18% of polyolefin
sales came from products launched in the last
three years.
“To ensure that examples like these become
increasingly common and help improve the quality of life of millions of consumers around the
world, Braskem constantly invests in innovation.
In 2012 alone, our research investments totaled
BRL 188 million,” observes Patrick Teyssonneyre,
the officer Responsible for Innovation and
Technology at Braskem’s Polyolefins Unit.
To make steady progress in this field, the
company has teams in place in Brazil, the United
States and Europe who are working in harmony with its two Technology and Innovation
Centers, located in Triunfo, in the Brazilian
state of Rio Grande do Sul, and Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, in the USA. All told, Braskem has
24 innovation labs, eight pilot plants (facilities
where new products, applications and processes
are tested) and a team of 330 professionals.
A decade of innovation
Braskem’s Technology and Innovation Center
at Triunfo celebrated its 10th anniversary in
2012, and is now firmly established as one of
the most advanced facilities of its kind in Latin
America. “In the last decade, Braskem has added
50
a great deal of technology to its products, bolstered its portfolio with new developments, and
brought in new products and technologies arising from acquisitions of companies and assets
made during that period,” says Patrick.
Comprised of 11 laboratories staffed with
teams of chemists and chemical, plastics and
materials engineers, the center has received over
5,300 visitors from 22 countries. They include
clients, suppliers, students, and representatives
of government agencies and financial institutions. Clients represent about 50% of the center’s 100 monthly visitors.
“Our clients want to get a first-hand look at
the analytical methods applicable to polymers
and often ask us to help them conduct analyses of materials characterization and development testing, and provide evidence of compliance with legal or regulatory standards,” says
Nércio Hexsel, the officer Responsible for the
Technology and Innovation Center’s labs.
Teaming up with clients to develop products has resulted in constant innovation, effective solutions, technological advances, increased
competitiveness, and market expansion, ensuring that the final beneficiaries – the public –
enjoy more comfort and convenience in their
daily lives. During its first decade of operation,
the center has celebrated several important
milestones, including the development, at the
pilot scale, of the world’s first “green” propylene
and polypropylene. Another is the Maxio product line. Made from polypropylene and polyethylene resins, it benefits clients by reducing
power consumption, producing lighter products
and increasing productivity.
Odebrecht Archives
ππBraskem member at work at the Technology and Innovation Center in Triunfo: marking 10 years of operations in 2012
Using cutting-edge equipment operated with
high-accuracy metrology, the center participates
in several inter-laboratory programs organized in
conjunction with leading international agencies.
“Our Technology and Innovation Center is one
of the key differentiators for Braskem, setting it
apart from the players in the polymer market in
Brazil and Latin America," stresses Nércio Hexsel.
“We work with a focus on developing new materials and providing support to our clients, enabling access to all 380 existing analytical methods. The goal, therefore, is to maximize the use
of Braskem’s plastic resins in manufacturing processes,” he adds. ]
Odebrecht informa
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I N T E R V I E W
LEADER OF NEW
AND OLD SALTS
ROBERTO RAMOS, FROM ODEBRECHT ÓLEO E GÁS
Written by Cláudio Lovato Filho | Photo by Américo Vermelho
Roberto Ramos is always thinking about the past and future. But this has nothing to do with
nostalgia, nor with excessive projections or hyper-anxiety. The past to which he dedicates
himself on a daily basis is the experience that teaches us lessons and therefore qualifies the
present. And the future is the one whose seeds are being planted today, through young people’s
drive and capacity to learn from co-workers from other generations. It is therefore fair to say
that, for Roberto Ramos, a company’s performance is a permanently extended present. Like
life itself. The Entrepreneurial Leader (CEO) of Odebrecht Óleo e Gás (Oil & Gas), Roberto
Prisco Paraíso Ramos, 66, holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Federal University
at Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), his home state. In this interview, he discusses the combination of
experienced and qualified “old salts” (as he affectionately calls the more mature members) and
highly educated young professionals. He underscores the investments Odebrecht Óleo e Gás has
made since 2006 (the year of its creation, or recreation, since the company’s origins date back
to Odebrecht Perfurações Ltda., OPL, created in 1979) and gives the reader an overview of the
Brazilian oil and gas industry.
52
Brazil is expected to become a major global player
in pre-salt oil exploration in this decade. How would
you describe the current state of the Brazilian oil
industry? What is changing in Brazil in this sector?
Brazil has a very ambitious plan to increase production. The country wants to reach 4.2 million barrels per year by 2020. It’s a huge challenge that the
President of Petrobras, Graça Foster, is overcoming
in a way that is well suited to the present situation.
Production is dwindling in the main fields, and Petrobras needs new projects. The Brazilian government
is encouraging the achievement of audacious goals,
with the strong participation of domestic industry.
The challenges include a shortage of skilled labor and
the difficulty that suppliers are having to meet the
demands at the required pace. The country is growing
at breakneck speed, and companies are still striving to
achieve excellence goals, although those that are associated with Petrobras and Odebrecht are all top of the
line. Overcoming the challenge of qualifying people
involves organizing educational programs. Here at
Odebrecht Óleo e Gás we have the Embarcar (Embark)
Program, which is an adaptation of Acreditar [the
Group’s Ongoing Professional Education Program] to
the realities of our industry.
ππWhat are Odebrecht Óleo e Gás’s main contributions to enabling Brazil to overcome these challenges and achieve the desired new level?
Between 2006 and early 2013, Odebrecht Óleo e Gás
built seven deepwater drilling rigs for Petrobras.
Our company has the world’s fifth-largest deepwater
drilling fleet, including the pre-salt area [see box
on page 54]. We are operating an additional FPSO
[floating production, storage and offloading unit] for
the first time in Brazil, and building two more pipelaying support vessels, or PLSVs, as they are known in
the market. We are the only Brazilian company that
operates in the subsea construction segment. We have
invested a total of USD 5.5 billion over the course of
six years.
ππAnd how does the client Petrobras, with which
Odebrecht has a historic and prolific relationship,
view these efforts?
I think a fairly recent episode can give you a good
idea. Yesterday [June 20], the President of Petrobras,
Graça Foster, visited the drillship Norbe IX [capable
of operating at a maximum water depth of 3,000 m
and drilling wells up to 10,000 m deep] in the Campos
Basin. That, in and of itself, showed that we are on
the right track, because it was the only platform she
visited. The president showered praise all the time she
was on board. Thanks to our long history and track
record in this enduring business relationship, Petrobras knows that Odebrecht delivers the projects it was
contracted to build without fail, and that we guarantee performance. Above all, Petrobras realizes that
Odebrecht has a corporate culture that sets us apart,
makes people enjoy working at our company and, consequently, ensures that they are always motivated to
give their clients the best possible service.
“TODAY WE ARE AT THE
CUTTING EDGE OF TECHNOLOGY.
AND OUR CHALLENGE AS
SUPPLIERS IS TO STAY THERE”
ππBut Petrobras has also given our units good (actually excellent) ratings, isn’t that true?
Yes, it is. We are very happy about that too. The ODN
II [capable of operating at a maximum depth of 3,000
m and drilling wells up to 10,000 m] has received a
grade of “10” twice now, and a grade of “9.9” another
two times from Petrobras’s inspectors, who assess
everything from operations per se to the workers'
accommodations, including the food served on board
and cleaning products used. The average grade we’ve
received in these assessments is “9.” For Petrobras,
which is an extremely rigorous and demanding client,
a “9” means that you have achieved excellence. A “10”
means we can understand that an operation is flawless.
This makes us very proud and encourages us to get
even better results, always.
ππTechnological development is a priority that can
be verified during the day-to-day operations of
Odebrecht Óleo e Gás teams. To what extent does
providing services to demanding clients and partnerships with major international companies contribute
in this regard?
Offshore oil exploration began in the 1960s, with the
United States operating in the Gulf of Mexico and
Great Britain in the North Sea. In Brazil, the search
for offshore oil began in the 1970s, in shallow waters
with a depth of up to 300 meters. In 1979, Odebrecht
Perfurações Ltda. (OPL) became the first private Brazilian company to drill oil wells. In the mid-1980s,
Odebrecht informa
53
this country began to explore for oil in what was then
considered deep water, at depths of up to 500 meters.
In the late 1980s, we started exploring at a depth of
one thousand meters. Anchored rigs, which could
operate at depths of up to 600 m, began to give way
to more advanced semi-submersibles, which can drill
at a thousand meters with much greater precision. In
the 1990s, the water depth reached 1,500 meters, and
in the 2000s, Brazil began exploring for oil at depths
of over 2,000 meters. Those were already considered ultradeep waters. In the middle of that decade,
we reached 3,000 meters. Those were giant leaps! We
went from using mechanical and electrical operating
systems to fully computerized systems. Today we are
at the cutting edge of technology. And our challenge
as suppliers is to stay there. Of course, Petrobras has
always encouraged its partners to develop technology.
That’s how it should be, because the oil supply chain
is long and based on technology. Without a doubt,
serving clients like Petrobras, as well as Shell, Statoil,
Total and ConocoPhillips, and partnering with leading
companies in the global market with extensive technological expertise, such as Teekay and Technip, are
very important factors for our development.
ππHow is the extensive track record the Group’s
teams have built up in the industry since the days of
OPL important for the continued growth of Odebrecht Óleo e Gás? And how is the know-how and
experience of the more seasoned members being
balanced with the new knowledge brought in by
younger members?
Here at Odebrecht Óleo e Gás we have experienced
members who are committed to staying up to date.
Working in the oil and gas industry is a high-risk
activity. We cannot do without experienced people.
The safety of our operations is paramount. And if
experience means safety, then experience is paramount. We have professionals who have been with us
for a long time, but there are also people who, despite
being experienced in the profession, are new to the
organization. They need to be acculturated. That is
one of the challenges we face. On the other hand, we
have young members who are well prepared academically, but need to develop the coolness and composure
they can only get from experience when dealing with
all kinds of situations that can arise during offshore
operations. Therefore, our strategy is to combine
experience with new knowledge brought in by our
younger members. And when I say “combine,” I mean
put it into practice on a daily basis. We have mentors in the company, in other words, mature members, or “old salts,” who are responsible for grooming
54
young partners. This is part of our Embarcar Program. Depending on the program he leads, a seasoned
professional will mentor one to four young people on
a daily basis. The idea is to combine the up-to-date
experience of mature professionals with the excellent
education of younger people. ]
Odebrecht Óleo e Gás
• Odebrecht Óleo e Gás provides integrated solutions for
the upstream oil and gas industry (the part of the supply
chain that precedes refining) in Brazil, and engages in
cross-cutting operations with other Odebrecht companies
in Angola, Venezuela, Argentina and Mexico.
• Odebrecht Óleo e Gás operates in six areas: offshore
drilling, subsea construction, offshore production and
logistics, offshore maintenance and services, E&P
(Exploration and Production) management services, and
specialized well services.
• Odebrecht Óleo e Gás’s fleet is made up of three
semisubmersible platforms (Norbe VI, and ODN Delba
III and ODN Tay IV), four drillships (Norbe VIII, Norbe IX,
ODN I and ODN II), two FPSOs, the North Sea Producer
(operating in the North Sea) and the Cidade de Itajaí
(operating in the Santos Basin), as well as two PLSVs
under construction, with start-up scheduled for 2014 and
2015.
• In 2012, Odebrecht Óleo e Gás partnered up with
the Sete Brasil company to manage construction of five
drilling units, including four drillships that will be built
at Odebrecht’s Estaleiro Enseada do Paraguaçu (EEP)
shipyard, and later operated by Odebrecht Óleo e Gás.
Odebrecht informa
click
ππAccessories made with piassava coconut shells in Nilo Peçanha, Bahia
S C I E N C E
FRAGMENTS OF
LIFE AND WORK
A TEAM OF ARCHAEOLOGISTS IS
RETRIEVING ARTIFACTS IN THE VICINITY
OF THE SANTO ANTÔNIO DAM
Written by Francisco Ornellas | Photos by Ricardo de Sagebin
ππ Juliana Santi (top) and the UNIR Archaeology Department: transferring knowledge
56
Her eyes shine with the certainty of someone who
has made the right decisions in life. Four years ago,
while studying for a PhD in Archaeology at the
University of São Paulo (USP), after obtaining a
BA in History from the University of Santa Maria
(UFSM) in her home state of Rio Grande do Sul,
Juliana Rossato Santi arrived in the city of Porto
Velho. There, in the state capital of Rondônia,
she joined the team of 85 people (including 20
archaeologists) that was responsible for retrieving archaeological artifacts in the vicinity of the
Santo Antônio Dam, a project being built under
the management of the Santo Antônio Energia
Concessionaire, an Odebrecht subsidiary.
Their mission is almost complete. The prospecting phase enabled the Brazilian company
Scientia Consultoria Científica to scour the entire
area of the construction site and collect fragments
that scientific methods have dated to 7,000 years
before 1950 (conventionally known as “year zero”
for that purpose).
The archaeologists marked off dig sites where
they excavated up to 1.20 m, collecting more than
100,000 items including pottery shards and polished and engraved rock. Then they reached the
point where the conventional method is used –
covering each item with cloth and recording it–
and finally, they employed a new method brought
in from Portugal by the Dryas Arqueologia company. A laser scanner transmits a beam that measures
900,000 points/second to permit 360-degree photogrammetry with such precision that no detail escapes, even in the smallest object.
A four-year member of Santo Antônio Energia,
Ricardo Ferreira, 54, follows the work with a watchful, almost fatherly eye. Born in the northwestern
Brazilian state of Acre, he coordinates Environmental
Conservation in the areas of Archaeology and
Palaeontology and listens to the reports of the
achievements of young Juliana, 33, and Suzana Zuse,
29 (she is from the same state as Juliana, and, like
her, has a BA in History from UFSM. She is studying
for an MA in Archaeology at USP).
Ricardo moved to Porto Velho 33 years ago.
“Without a doubt, the people ‘from here’ are very
enthusiastic about the changes generated by the
Santo Antônio Dam,” he says. Those changes began
taking place during the construction phase and are
being perpetuated by projects like the one he coordinates. Working assuredly in the spaces between
the labs and the offices that once housed them,
they are now transferring the entire collection to
the Federal University at Rondônia (UNIR).
Odebrecht informa
57
ππArtifacts found in the archaeological sites on the Madeira River: Carbon-14 dating was used to determine
the age of the pottery shards
Benefits for academia
Both Juliana and Suzana have good reason to celebrate: they are now tenured
professors at the UNIR Archaeology
Department, thanks to the project
they helped carry out. Its legacy
will be the entire collection of artifacts. The archaeologists will be
able to keep the program going at
the university, while transferring
their knowledge and experience,
thereby helping to preserve the
region’s prehistoric and historic
heritage.
Surrounded by shelves stacked
in the labs of the building that
once housed the archaeology
teams, their job now is to pack up
thousands of fragments, screens of all
sizes, a few intact vessels and dozens of bottles of
various capacities.
All this is the result of the patience that characterizes professionals like these women. It all
started on the banks of the Madeira River, in areas that are only accessible in the dry season.
Following the patterns of human settlement, they
took samples and marked off areas for excavation.
The dig sites were set 20 m apart. They excavated
the area, photographed their finds, wrapped them
up and took everything to the lab. There, they
washed, sorted and analyzed each item. Using the
Carbon-14 method, they were able to date their
finds scientifically. They found artifacts created
7,000, 4,000, 2,000 and 500 years ago (before
58
1950). An archaeological concept developed
in the 1940s, C-14 dating makes it possible to
use chemical analysis to determine the age of
most of the fragments and objects found on the
planet.
The bottles are a special case.
Although they are much more recent
(100 years old, according to C-14 dating), most of these items were found
at the Santo Antônio site, the original
urban center of Porto Velho, 7.5 km
from the current center of town. The
bottles hold a quarter of a liter. Most
are greenish and made of thick glass.
Smaller ones bear inscriptions indicating that they contained cosmetics used by the workers who laid the
first tracks for the Madeira-Mamore
Railroad.
At this point, archaeological recovery meets
historic preservation. As the steward of sustainability programs for the Madeira-Mamore Railroad,
Alexandre Queiroz is responsible for that area’s interaction with the community. He collects physical evidence of numerous achievements, such as
the urban development around the chapel (where
the archaeologists found the bottles) and the establishment of the Indigenous Cultural Center on
the Santo Antônio site. In Porto Velho, Queiroz is
pleased to see that the restoration of the old rail
yard is well underway. And he can already glimpse
the future: tourist trains riding the rails on the first
kilometers of the adventure that characterized the
historic railway. ]
IDEAS
LINKED TO THE HIGHWAY
Written by Emanuella Sombra
A chip installed in their vehicles allows drivers
to pay tolls without stopping at a toll plaza.
This technology is already well known, but
Brazilian motorists can now make driving even
more practical with ConectCar. This new electronic payment system is more advantageous
than its main competitors for two reasons:
first, it works through a prepaid system and
does not charge monthly fees, and second, the
transponder can be purchased at any Ipiranga
service station at a much lower cost than similar devices.
Created by Odebrecht TransPort in partnership with Ipiranga, ConectCar went into
operation in April. Its technology enables the
system to send a text message to clients’ cell
phones whenever they recharge the device, as
well as allowing them to exchange credits for
fuel. “For people who don’t drive that often,
this is a much more economical option than
the competition’s,” explains João Cumerlato,
CEO of ConectCar. The system can also be
used to pay for parking in some malls and
shopping centers in São Paulo City. By the end
of the year, it will be available at more than
100 business establishments. On the road, 20
concession companies have already adopted
this new model.
CAN DO
IN REAL TIME
Good ideas can arise (and often do) from the inconveniences
of daily life. A Braskem proposal, made in partnership with
the Companhia Brasileira de Embalagens packaging firm,
solves a common dilemma for beer drinkers: how can they
stop the beer from being contaminated when it comes into
contact with the outside of the can? Approved in lab tests by
institutes in Brazil and France, a plastic seal protects the top
of the can and keeps the surface perfectly clean. The seal is
applied to the cans after they have gone through the process
of washing and drying, and ensures that they are safe, clean
and ready for use at any time. This innovation, which is also
eco-friendly because it uses recyclable raw materials, reached
Brazilian supermarkets in June. The first brand to adopt the
seal was Cervejaria Colônia.
Panels that issue alerts in real
time and enable fast decisions.
To improve export processes,
Odebrecht Logística e Exportação
(Odebrecht Logistics and
Export; Olex) has introduced the
Warehouse Management System
(WMS) to streamline logistics from
the receipt of orders from suppliers
to delivery of goods at the ports of
Santos, SP, and Rio de Janeiro and
their subsequent shipment. This
system also detects problems and
enables immediate solutions. ]
Odebrecht informa
59
LIFE ON THE JOBSITE
HOW TO ENJOY
YOUR WORK
Texto Luiz Carlos | Foto Edu Simões
INNOVATIVE MEASURES AT THE
TELES PIRES DAM JOBSITE FOCUS
ON WORKERS’ WELL-BEING
60
Written by João Paulo Carvalho | Photos by Bruna Romaro
It’s really a construction site, but feel free to call it a
town. The infrastructure set up to house the members who are working on the construction of the
Teles Pires hydroelectric plant, which Odebrecht
Infraestrutura (Infrastructure) is building on the
border of two states, Mato Grosso and Pará, leaves
nothing to be desired in comparison to many rural
Brazilian towns. About 5,000 people are currently
enjoying the facilities installed in a 55,000 m² area
to foster the greatest possible unity and fraternization among its residents.
The structure in itself is enough to keep anyone happy, even if they are hyperactive. In addition
to the 1,488 bedrooms – each with cable TV and
air conditioning – there are plenty of places to go
for entertainment. As of 9 a.m., these facilities are
ready for the arrival of the first people looking to
have some fun. They can start the day by playing on
one of three soccer pitches (with natural grass on the
official size pitch, and synthetic grass on the other
two – the only ones within a radius of 300 km). The
workers hold championships there, and the winners
are awarded prizes. For those who do not enjoy a
friendly outdoor soccer game, there are plenty of indoor options. The game room is equipped with pool
and ping-pong tables, and people can also play dominoes, checkers and foosball.
For those who prefer hi-tech toys, there are several Playstation games available. A theater seating
150 people, with a popcorn stand at the entrance,
shows movies every night, most of them ordered by
the workers themselves. Action films and comedies
are their favorite genres. After the movie, how about
going to the pizzeria or stopping at the diner with
friends?
Then, to cap off the day, you have the option of
stopping at an Internet cafe to check your emails
or making some quick purchases at the shops –
they sell everything from batteries and chocolate to
clothes and cell phone accessories. But some may
decide to stop and pray at the ecumenical chapel,
which embraces people of all faiths on an equal basis.
To ensure that these facilities run smoothly, in addition to the people responsible for the
maintenance of physical spaces, volunteers play an
ππParty night at the Teles Pires jobsite: enjoying life
in the demanding and challenging environment of a
major engineering and construction project
Odebrecht informa
61
ππEdvaldo Freire: his work begins when members arrive at the jobsite
indispensable role. There are eight of them at the
moment. The leader of this team is Edvaldo Freire.
A native of Serra Talhada, Pernambuco, he is a kind
of MC and entertainer who also doubles as a radio
and TV presenter. You hear his voice coming from
the speakers installed around the jobsite and at
events held at the band shell, a facility equipped with
a stage, dance floor and bleachers specially designed
for the parties and festivities held at the jobsite.
Freire is responsible for the Worker Quality of
Life Program, and this is not the first time he has
had that task. He was responsible for implementing similar programs at the Irapé Dam project in
Minas Gerais in 2002, at the Odebrecht Engenharia
Industrial jobsite in São Roque do Paraguaçu, Bahia,
in 2005, and the Onça Puma Mining Project in
Ourilândia do Norte, Pará, in 2007.
“People need to be won over”
“Here at Teles Pires, the big news is Viva+ TV.
It’s my favorite. We’re all learning how it works,” says
Freire. Viva+ (Live More) TV is an internal channel that broadcasts programs produced at the jobsite by volunteers. The content is varied, featuring
interviews about workplace health and safety and
in-house activities like the St. John’s Day festivities, which the Odebrecht Informa team was lucky
enough to experience.
The TV station has a studio, digital cameras and
computers with professional editing programs. “The
thing I like best is being able to do a little bit of everything I’ve done on all the jobsites I’ve worked on
before, learning and teaching more and more. What I
62
do here is part of an awareness campaign that starts
when each member arrives. People have to be won
over, and if you treat them as equals, the relationship starts out on the right footing and stays that
way,” Freire observes.
The work that he and his team are doing has
a direct impact on people like Hélio Ferreira Lima,
a technical assistant who is working at the jobsite
along with several family members – two of his children, two in-laws and a nephew. “Here we have good
working conditions and personal and professional development. If you want to grow, you’ll always
find an opportunity,” says Hélio, who has worked on
Odebrecht construction projects since 1985.
According to the Project Director, Antônio
Augusto Castro Santos, facilities like the ones provided at Teles Pires set the project apart because
they encourage harmony and productivity. “As our
TEO [Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology] clearly
states, the most important thing is respect for human beings. We need to ensure that people are happy and motivated, so we invest in quality of life for
our workers,” he stresses. “We invited an architect to
design this place. The goal was to bring in someone
with a different outlook that could further humanize
the environment where we will be living for a long
time until the project is completed,” he adds.
All this well-being is reflected in the progress of
the Teles Pires project, which has never experienced
a strike, and celebrated an important milestone on
June 6: the diversion of the Teles Pires River and the
completion of 49% of the project, which will be delivered by July 2015. ]
Odebrecht informa
click
ππKayaker Christian Fuchs in Nazaré Paulista, São Paulo, in the vicinity of the D. Pedro I Corridor
LOGISTICS
ππOdebrecht Agroindustrial’s logistics team: from left, Evandro Pizeta, Luciano Pereira, Gabriel Salgado, Cristiane
Pereira, Felipe Vendramin, Guilherme Schwab, Luciana da Cruz, Ricardo Levy, Leonardo Finoti, Kelli Kor Kamp,
Edelson de Castro and Paulo Vivan
64
FROM THE CANE FIELD
TO THE SERVICE STATION
A COMPLEX OPERATION IS PLANNED AND EXECUTED
TO ENSURE THAT ODEBRECHT AGROINDUSTRIAL’S ETHANOL
AND SUGAR REACH THEIR DESTINATIONS
Written by Guilherme Bourroul | Photos by Ricardo Teles
Odebrecht Agroindustrial’s nine units are located in four Brazilian states, but most of its ethanol and sugar output comes from the Mid-West.
It takes a complex logistical operation to ensure
that the company’s products reach their destinations. The work begins before the production process starts, with the transportation of
thousands of sugarcane seedlings for planting.
On average, the cane is ready for harvesting 18
months later, when it is taken to the production
unit. For the company, the Cutting, Loading and
Transporting operation (CCT in Portuguese) is
the target of a major investment in skilled people and equipment.
Sugarcane harvested at the agricultural
fronts has to be delivered to the unit for processing to produce ethanol, sugar and electricity
from biomass on the same day – preferably the
same shift. Because it is perishable, the harvested cane cannot be stored. The logistics must be
quick and precise, because it directly impacts
the results.
To ensure excellent service and optimize
costs, all of Odebrecht Agroindustrial's agricultural fronts use logistics software that minimizes the impact of a shortage of raw materials at the processing plants. “Automation
allows us to obtain data on agricultural processes reliably and in real time, as well as increasing efficiency in cost control and decision-making in a way that is concomitant with
our operations,” says Otávio Fonseca, from the
Odebrecht Agroindustrial Internal Logistics and
Agricultural Assets program.
Every year, during the off season between
January and March, the agricultural managers
project production and raw materials requirements for the next harvest. “Each unit agrees on
the milling plan that will be carried out during
harvesting. The goal is to harvest the cane and
supply the plant non-stop, 24 hours a day, as
long as there are machines available and the
weather is good,” adds Otávio.
Odebrecht Agroindustrial currently uses
281 cane harvesters and 562 transshipment vehicles, including tractors and trucks, in its harvesting operations. All told, the company owns
77% of its equipment and rents the remaining
23%. The operation is seamless: throughout
the day, each sugarcane truck makes four to
eight trips between the fields and the production unit. “It’s a highly synchronized process,"
concludes Otávio.
Infrastructure team
To provide support for its logistics operations, Odebrecht Agroindustrial’s infrastructure
team takes care of the construction and maintenance of roads, bridges and other improvements
required to ensure the viability of the operation
and the safety of the company’s members.
“We make the adaptations needed to transport the raw material. Our investments are
based on the requirements of the company’s
production centers, which interface with the agricultural area to prioritize construction works,”
explains Marcos Alves, the officer Responsible
for Engineering and Deployment at the São
Paulo and Goiás Hubs.
Last season alone, the company invested
nearly BRL 75 million in improvements. “The
more we expand the cane fields and identify
Odebrecht informa
65
Odebrecht Archives
opportunities to improve the roads that lead to
our units, the more we need to invest in infrastructure,” says Marcos.
Transporting ethanol and sugar
To optimize the mix of production, storage and sales of its products, Odebrecht
Agroindustrial’s Planning team determines the
best sales and shipment curve for each month
on the basis of the plants’ projected production, the Commercial Program’s projected prices, storage capacity, sales (contract and spot) and
the cost of services.
The company currently uses road and rail
transport to ship the ethanol and sugar produced at each unit. Odebrecht Agroindustrial
is responsible for the largest rail shipments of
ethanol in Brazil. The fulfillment of its commitment to clients to deliver the product safely, on time and with a competitive cost is assured by the Logistics team, which is responsible for planning and consolidating the operations of the company’s bases, terminals and
logistics modes.
According to Ricardo Levy, the officer
Responsible for Planning, Logistics and Energy,
a computerized system helps determine which
unit will fulfill each commercial contract signed,
and the exact time when the company should
66
warehouse or sell products on the spot market
(immediate delivery and payment), which represents about 40% of sales. “We have a system
in place that compares the price curve with the
freight curve. Everything that reduces the cost
of logistics is a competitive edge,” says Ricardo.
Safe Shipment
The challenge for the Logistics area is to
deliver products on time and safely, for a good
price, all the time. The company complies with
all transport standards and is currently developing the Safe Shipment project, whose
goal is to minimize the risks for Odebrecht
Agroindustrial, the carrier and other stakeholders, while ensuring significant gains in productivity. An important part of this project is the
automated ethanol shipment system, which will
be initially deployed at two units, Alto Taquari
in Mato Grosso (Taquari Hub), and Santa Luzia,
in Mato Grosso do Sul (Mato Grosso do Sul
Hub), by September.
This BRL 16-million system measures the
flow rate between the unit and the tank, which is
equipped with radar that measures the amount
of product loaded for shipment. “Everything
that comes out of the system is measured. There
is some evaporation loss, but it is not that significant,” says Ricardo Levy.
Odebrecht Archives
Odebrecht Archives
ππCane field, industrial unit and ethanol loading station: the next stop is the service station
In May, Odebrecht Agroindustrial opened
an ethanol terminal in Paulínea, São Paulo,
which focuses on the spot market. “The terminal has a high-capacity rail station to receive shipments and is strategically located in
Brazil’s largest fuel hub, near the main consumer market,” says Ricardo.
The company began exporting ethanol to
the United States in 2012. In this case, the
product is shipped by road to the port of
Santos, São Paulo, and by rail to the port of
Paranaguá, Paraná, and tank ships carry it to
its final destination. In the case of sugar, 90%
of exports are shipped through a multimodal (road and rail) operation from Paranaguá to
Asia, the Middle East and Europe, and 10% by
road, to Uruguay. ]
Logum and the
“ethanolduct”
Created in 2011, Logum Logística is yet another symbol of
the cross-cutting synergy between Odebrecht companies.
Responsible for operating an ethanol logistics system
that has the major advantage of using pipelines that will
total 1,300 km in length and a waterway on the Tietê
and Paraná rivers, Logum has six partners: Odebrecht
TransPort, Petrobras, Copersucar, Raízen, Camargo Corrêa
and Uniduto, an association of 52 plants.
The deployment of this system, which is scheduled for
completion by 2016, will service 100% of Odebrecht
Agroindustrial’s units, enabling the shipment of most of
their ethanol production. “When our operation matures,
we estimate that around BRL 300 million will be spent on
logistics per harvest. Thanks to Logum, we should reduce
our costs significantly, which is critical for a commodity
business,” says Ricardo Levy.
Odebrecht Agroindustrial expects to expedite about 2
billion liters through Logum. During the 2014-15 harvest
season, the company will make significant use of the
pipeline. In Ricardo’s assessment: “We will have what
it takes to stay competitive, grow and perpetuate our
business.”
Odebrecht informa
67
PETROCHEMICALS
ππPedro Boscolo and Amauri Silva: growing along with the company
68
A TALE OF TWO
PIONEERS
AS ITS PLANTS IN PAULÍNIA AND MAUÁ RESPECTIVELY
MARK 5 AND 10 YEARS OF OPERATIONS, BRASKEM INVESTS
IN TECHNOLOGY TO BOOST PRODUCTION
Written by Fabiana Cabral | Photos by Holanda Cavalcanti
Fifteen years ago, chemical engineer Maurício
Britto got his first job opportunity at the Triunfo
Petrochemical Complex in the southern Brazilian
state of Rio Grande do Sul. Ten years later, in
March 2008, he moved to São Paulo State for a
fresh start: working on the start-up of the new
Braskem polypropylene plant in Paulínia, the PP
3 PLN unit. “It was a huge challenge,” he recalls.
“Challenge” is also a word that describes the beginning of the career of Mateus Bacochina, which
he experienced at the PP 3 PLN unit. “Everything
was a first for me.”
After 20 months of construction by Odebrecht,
Braskem’s first greenfield project went online on
April 23, 2008. “Its location is strategic, because
we are close to the Petrobras unit that provides
80% of our raw materials through pipelines, and
our clients’ factories in the ‘heart’ of São Paulo
State,” says Maurício, the unit’s Production
Manager.
Eduardo Konrath was one of the operators
transferred from Triunfo, in his home state, to
Paulínia. A 25-year member of the Group, he
views participating in the plant’s construction and
commissioning as a rare opportunity: “I learned a
lot from working with people from different areas,
and had the chance to ‘take the equipment out of
the box’ and inspect it before installation.”
During the five years that have elapsed since
then, the PP 3 PLN unit’s production has increased to keep pace with the polypropylene
market, which is growing at a rate of 6% to 8%
per year. The thermoplastic resin is used to
make a range of products, such as packaging,
auto parts, toys and appliances. Its multiple applications enable cost savings and competitive
advantages.
The unit’s output rose from 90,000 metric tons in the first year to 330,000 t in 2012.
According to Maurício Britto, it is expected to
reach 450,000 t/year by 2015 thanks to investments in new technologies and equipment. “We
can only break production records with the help
of qualified teams,” he stresses.
Members from three generations are working in Paulínia. The first generation, which came
from Triunfo, includes veterans with more than
25 years’ experience. The second is made up of
local residents with 15-year careers, on average,
followed by young talent, with an average age of
25. They honed their skills by taking part in the
Operator Education Program, a Braskem initiative carried out in partnership with the National
Industrial Education Service (SENAI) that focuses
on grooming petrochemical industry professionals. “We have also developed courses that enable
more experienced members to transfer knowledge to newly hired young people,” says Maurício.
Mateus Bacochina is a graduate of that program. He saw Braskem as an opportunity to get
his first job after obtaining a technical certificate in Chemistry. He underwent a lengthy process, including lectures, assessments, classes and
tests at Triunfo, before he was eventually hired.
Odebrecht informa
69
ππFrom left: Eduardo Konrath, Mateus Bacochina and Maurício Britto, in Paulínia:
innovations, challenges and experience
“I participated in the start-up of the plant and
changed my major from Mechanical Engineering
to Chemical Engineering,” he explains. Mateus
graduated in December 2012, and became a
Production Planning Analyst in March 2013.
From Paulínia to Mauá
“I remember when there were wooden benches in the reception area. That’s how it all started,” says Amauri Silva, who has worked at the
PP 4 ABC unit in Mauá, São Paulo, for 36 years.
In 1977, at the age of 21, he saw a newspaper ad
for machinists. “I said ‘that’s me’, and today I’m
grateful for the opportunity that I embraced,” he
says. A leader in the Maintenance area, Amauri
observes: “When the company grows, we grow
along with it.”
He took part in the start-up of the first polypropylene plant in Latin America on May 19,
1978. Based on the slurry technology – which
used solvent in production – its initial capacity was 60,000 t/year. “The months leading up
to the start-up of the plant involved a lot of
hard work and research so the operation would
go smoothly,” recalls the operator Luiz Antônio
Martins, who has also worked at the PP 4 ABC
unit for 36 years.
In 1985, chemical engineer Pedro Boscolo
joined the plant’s team with the goal of reducing
70
costs and boosting productivity. Thanks to the installation of a cooling unit for propylene (the raw
material for making polypropylene), the unit’s
capacity reached 130,000 t/year. “The PP 4 ABC
unit needed to modernize to keep pace with the
growing market and the increased number of clients,” he says.
After working on other programs for a few
years, Pedro returned to Mauá in 2006 to help
deploy the Sheripol technology that had just been
introduced to turn propylene into polypropylene through the polymerization process (it is also used at Braskem’s other polypropylene plants).
“In 2003, the old plant was demolished and a
new, more advanced facility went online right
next door. It was built on the adjoining lot before
the original unit was deactivated,” he recalls.
The plant’s capacity jumped from 130,000 to
300,000 t/year. In 2006, it reached 360,000 t/
year, and by 2008 it was 450,000 t/year. “We
made a massive investment, and we have almost
maxed out our production capacity,” says Pedro,
who concludes: “Our challenge is to maintain the
recognition of this performance, both internally
and externally, while grooming a new generation
of members endowed with expertise and creativity, and making ever greater efforts to increase the
excellence of our operations. And we must do all
that with a sustainable outlook.” ]
Odebrecht informa
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F O L K S
Written by Eliana Simonetti
FAMILY
José Cláudio Daltro was born in the
northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia, and
is married to Mara, a southerner from
Rio Grande do Sul. Catarina, the couple’s
eldest daughter, was born in São Paulo
and has lived in Caracas, Venezuela, since
she was 4. José Cláudio Filho, 14, was
born in Pernambuco, Brazil, and arrived in
Caracas when he was 6 months old. The
officer Responsible for Administration,
Finance and Planning at Odebrecht
Venezuela for 13 years, José Cláudio has
also lived in Peru, Argentina and Chile.
He teaches his children that diversity
and multiculturalism enrich their lives.
“You’ve got to love the place where you
are and get to know its people and their
culture, because contact with them results
in experiences that make our family
stronger.”
Arquivo pessoal
Fortifying experiences
ππJosé Cláudio: “You’ve got to love the place where you are”
TRAVEL
Ed Araújo
Discoveries on the footpath
ππSaionara: enchanted by the beautiful hills of Santos
72
Born in Quedas do Iguaçu, Paraná,
Saionara Lawandovski Porto has a Business
degree and is finishing a graduate course
in Social Projects Development. She has
lived in the Brazilian states of Tocantins,
Mato Grosso and Rondônia. Married
with two grown children, she joined
the Odebrecht Group five years ago and
runs social outreach projects in Santos,
São Paulo for Odebrecht Realizações
Imobiliárias (OR), the Group’s real estate
arm. She loves that city, especially the
beauty and diversity its hills where she
enjoys going for walks and talking to the
people she meets there. Her favorite spot
is Campina Rock, atop Nova Cintra Hill,
where she can take in the view of the coast
of Santos and São Vicente. “You can only
appreciate some of the beautiful things
in life by walking,” she says.
SPORTS
ARTS & CULTURE
When he was 7, Luiz Martins
Catharino Gordilho Neto played on
the Vitória club's junior soccer team.
Between the ages of 7 and 13, he also
played on the national tennis circuit
and competed in tournaments. At
13, he started boxing and fought in
some amateur tournaments. Then,
at 18, he decided to learn jiu-jitsu,
becoming a three-time champion in
Bahia, as well as winning an interstate
championship. He has also surfed.
“In 2000, after losing in the first round
of the world jiu-jitsu championship,
I decided to dedicate myself 100%
to Engineering. I was third in
the world in 1998 and could no
longer reconcile the sport with my
profession.” An Odebrecht member
since 2000, he is now responsible
for the Xalapa Multipurpose Project
in the state of Veracruz, Mexico. He
plays tennis and soccer whenever
he can, and goes swimming with his
wife, Louise, and daughters Maria
Luísa, 5, and Liza, 3. Maria Luísa is
already competing at the Mundet
Club in Mexico City.
Lia Lubambo/Lusco
Sports are in their DNA
ππAntônio: celebrating the talent
and presence of Brazilian art overseas
Carlos Ruiz
Saving artworks
ππLuiz with his wife, Louise, and daughters Maria Luísa and Liza: a passion
for sports is a family tradition
An architect from Rio de Janeiro who
is married with four children, Antonio
Carlos Pinto joined Odebrecht in
1978 at the age of 18. He started out
as an intern at the Rio Sul shopping
center project in his home town. In the
following years he also worked in other
parts of Brazil, as well as the United
Arab Emirates and Libya, but he has
mostly lived and worked as an expat
in the USA. He has been developing
new businesses in that country since
2011. An art lover, he led the team
responsible for the successful effort to
restore and install two murals by the
artist Carybé at Miami International
Airport. That project recently received
the Brazilian International Press Award.
“This prize celebrates and highlights
the talent and presence of Brazilian
art in other countries,” says Antonio,
clearly pleased by this recognition of
Odebrecht’s initiative. ]
Odebrecht informa
73
E N V I R O NM E N T
LIQUID
ASSET
ODEBRECHT COMPANIES CONCEIVE AND
IMPLEMENT WATER PRESERVATION PROJECTS
Written by Zaccaria Junior | Photo by Holanda Cavalcanti
“Water cooperation is not a technical or scientific
issue. This is about fighting poverty and protecting
the environment. It is about laying the foundations
for sustainable development and lasting peace.”
These words, from the message released by Irina
Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO on World
Water Day on March 22, 2013, fit in perfectly with
a very special time. The UN has declared 2013 as
the International Year of Water Cooperation, symbolizing the importance of preserving the world’s
most vital natural resource. In her message, Bokova
calls for “innovative thinking” and “cooperation
across the board.” Approximately 70% of our planet is covered in water. Of that total, 97.5% is salt
water and only 2.5% is fresh, and 77.2% of that is
frozen in glaciers and ice caps, 22.4% is found in
underground aquifers, 0.36% is contained in rivers
and lakes, and 0.04% in the atmosphere. Therefore,
only a small amount of fresh water in liquid state is
available for several types of uses.
ππAquapolo’s facilities: the largest industrial water recycling project in the Southern Hemisphere
74
“That amount would be sufficient for the
world’s population to live in dignity, if it weren’t
for waste and pollution,” says Mário Pino,
Braskem’s Corporate Manager for Sustainable
Development and the author of the quick overview of the world’s water distribution provided in
the previous paragraph. Pino points out that water
consumption has tripled in the last 50 years, and
the population living in areas facing high water
stress is expected to rise from 2.4 billion (2002) to
3.5 billion (2032).
Corporate social responsibility
At Braskem, the pursuit of water conservation has created opportunities for developing new
products and markets and contributed to the development of solutions, with a focus on the following premises: the optimization of water consumption in the agricultural sector, which is the
world’s largest consumer of that resource; prevention of diseases related to consumption of contaminated water and health problems related to
basic sanitation (water and sewer) infrastructure,
and access to water for communities in remote locations.
“Plastic is being used in the construction
of sustainable solutions. Irrigation is responsible for 70% of all water consumption in the
world. Braskem has helped its clients develop solutions involving plastic to minimize the
consumption of water in irrigation. We have
already developed some products for that purpose,” says Mário Pino.
Emyr Costa, the Engineering Director of
Odebrecht Ambiental (Environment), underscores
the importance of three key factors for water efficiency and safety, all of which are included in the
company’s activities: conservation of springs in
the watershed, loss reduction, and the creation of
water recycling projects.
Speaking of watersheds, Emyr emphasizes the
revitalization of the Ribeirão Taquarussu Grande
sub-basin in the northern state of Tocantins,
which supplies 66% of the population of Palmas.
Due to an 85% reduction in its flow during the
dry seasons in the last 17 years, the sub-basin is
the target of intensive efforts to effect the environmental restoration and conservation of natural
areas and biodiversity to reduce water stress and
guarantee the watershed’s sustainability.
As for loss reduction, Limeira, São Paulo, in
1995 became the first Brazilian city to provide water and sewer services through a private company.
The concession is managed by Foz, the water and
sewer arm of Odebrecht Ambiental, which has
been operating with total loss indices (including
physical and commercial) of just 16%, while the
average in Brazil is 40%.
With regard to recycling, the Aquapolo Ambiental
company, an iconic partnership between Odebrecht
Ambiental and Sabesp (São Paulo State’s water
and sewer company), is the largest industrial water recycling project in the Southern Hemisphere.
Braskem is its main client. Located in the ABC
Paulista Petrochemical Complex, the project saves
an amount of treated drinking water equivalent
to the consumption of a city of 500,000, making
it one of the 10 largest projects of its kind in the
world.
In addition to operating in these three areas, Emyr points out that Odebrecht is making a
contribution on another front: the Conservation
Council for Latin America, made up of regional
business and political leaders who are committed
to tackling Latin America’s environmental challenges. Coordinated by The Nature Conservancy
(TNC), a global conservation organization, the
council has produced a list of thematic groups focused on environmental threats to human populations and natural ecosystems. With regard to water, they have formed a task force made up of representatives of local companies and governments
to ensure the supply of water in cities at greater risk. Odebrecht is part of that team. Marcelo
Odebrecht, President and CEO of Odebrecht S.A.,
is a member, represented by Emyr Costa.
Monica Queiroz, the officer Responsible for
Sustainability at Odebrecht Ambiental, underscores one of the region’s unique characteristics. She explains that the final cost of the water
that reaches the Brazilian communities and Latin
America in general is still considered relatively
low, when compared to other countries. “There are
numerous campaigns underway that focus on the
end consumer to combat waste and raise awareness
about the value of water, but they do not really deal
with the losses incurred during the processes of
the water companies themselves, and the important responsibility they have. The impacts are huge,”
argues Monica.
Odebrecht Ambiental’s solutions can be replicated in several parts of the world with highly
positive results for the environment. “Loss reduction and reuse have an impact on many watersheds and, consequently, on water efficiency,” adds
Monica. ]
Odebrecht informa
75
CITIES
THE HEIGHTS
OF ALEMÃO
A TRANSPORT SOLUTION FOR THE COMMUNITY,
THE CABLE-CAR SYSTEM IS NOW ATTRACTING
TOURISTS AND GROWING THE LOCAL ECONOMY
Written by Luiz Assumpção | Photos by Américo Vermelho
She used to get up before dawn. Vânia Maria
Almeida, a resident of the Morro da Baiana shantytown, had to catch a van and pay BRL 2.00 to
get down to the “asphalt,” and then take a bus to
the Bonsucesso railway station to finally get to
her workplace. Thanks to that daily commute,
the housecleaner never had any spare time or
money.
Vânia represents thousands of people who benefit from the introduction of the Alemão CableCar System two years ago – more specifically on
July 7, 2011 – which enables residents of the complex of hillside shantytowns known as Complexo
do Alemão to get to work faster and spend less
money on transportation. It takes just 16 minutes
to get from the first stop to the last, and the ride is
free for members of the community.
The recent history of Complexo do Alemão
dates back to the 1920s, when a Polish refugee
from World War I, Leonard Kacsmarkiewiez, arrived in Rio de Janeiro and acquired land in Serra da
Misericordia, a mountain range in what was then a
rural part of Rio de Janeiro. Because of his northern-European looks, the city’s residents soon nicknamed him Alemão (German), and that moniker
extended to his property, which became known as
Morro do Alemão (the German’s Hill).
The construction of Avenida Brasil in 1946 enabled several industries to establish plants near
Kacsmarkiewiez’s farm. Over the following decades, the region became Rio’s main industrial hub.
Perceiving these developments, Kacsmarkiewiez
decided to divide his land into lots and sell them.
Soon there was a race for housing there. Family
members of workers from different parts of the
country gradually settled in the nearby hills,
76
forming Complexo do Alemão, which officially
became a district of the North Zone of the city in
1993.
Today that district is made up of 12 communities which are home to a total of 200,000 people. Life has never been easy for residents who, for
decades, were forced to live with the violence and
lack of basic services in what was then the main
drug trafficking hub in the city.
Housing conditions are still far from ideal,
but life in the complex is getting better, especially after the arrival of the PAC Favelas program in
2008, an initiative of the Federal and State governments. Formed by Odebrecht Infraestrutura
(Infrastructure), Delta Construções and OAS, the
Rio Melhor (Better Rio) joint venture has built
schools, houses, PSUs (emergency care units) and
the cable-car system. In late 2010, a mega-operation of the civil and military police backed by the
armed forces drove out the drug traffickers who
once controlled those communities and set up
Police Pacification Units (UPPs).
Transport solution and tourist attraction
Six months later, after three years of construction at a cost of BRL 210 million, the cable-car
system managed and maintained by the SuperVia
concessionaire improved transportation services
for local residents and became one of the city’s
main tourist attractions. On average, 12,000 people travel on the cable cars every day. On weekends,
more than half of those passengers are tourists.
According to the cable-car system’s Operations
Director, Luiz de Souza, the community has embraced the project and helps protect the cars and
cables from being defaced or damaged. “At first, one
ππThe Alemão Cable Car System, Vãnia Almeida and Vera Oliveira with her family: better quality
of life for residents and more visitors
Odebrecht informa
77
ππWarner Umbelino: “Here I sell to the whole world”
of the main questions we faced was the possibility of vandalism by the local population. After two
years and more than 6 million passengers, I am convinced that this is a successful project in every way,
and I am thrilled to see families smiling and happy
to travel in the cable cars.” The low price of BRL 5
for non-residents encourages large numbers of visitors to use it as well. Furthermore, the Globo network’s telenovela “Salve Jorge,” whose international
plot partly unfolded in Complexo do Alemão communities, gave the influx of visitors a further boost.
During the low season, the cable-car system surpassed some of Brazil’s major tourist attractions.
According to SuperVia, an average of 14,000 tourists
uses it on Saturdays and Sundays, while 6,000 visit
Sugarloaf Mountain and 9,000 climb Corcovado to
see the statue of Christ the Redeemer.
Vera Luzia Oliveira took advantage of the low
fares to take her whole family to Complexo do
Alemão. “I live in Nova Iguaçu and a lot of folks
there say they want to check out the Alemão cable car. The tickets are much cheaper than fares for
the train to the Christ and the Sugar Loaf cable car.
Plus, you can see a different view of the city instead of just the South Zone,” said the bank worker,
78
who was accompanied by her children. They were
all smiles as they went on their first ride in the
heights of Alemão.
The arrival of visitors has also given local businesses a boost. When you get off at Palmeiras
Station, the last stop on the system, you will find
a number of vendors selling all kinds of food and
beverages, and get a warm welcome from the proud
community.
Artist Warner Umbelino moved to Nova Brasília
Hill five months ago. He sells his decorated tiles
to tourists from countries as diverse as Denmark
and Iran. “Here I sell to the whole world. I jot down
the nationality of my buyers in my notebook. Lots
of ‘gringos’ started coming here after the cable car
was built.” Umbelino’s notebook already contains
four pages of countries that have imported his art
works.
Complexo do Alemão has not experienced such
dramatic changes since “the German” sold his land.
It is true that a great deal needs to be done to make
it a more comfortable place for its residents to live.
Even so, the speed of the recent changes has given fresh hope to the community, which craves more
high-quality investments. ]
Odebrecht informa
WHEN WE GO
ABROAD, WE DON’T
GO ALONE.
Vilson, Salvador, Leonardo, Ricardo
and thousands of other Brazilians go with us.
ODEBRECHT is one of Brazil’s leading service exporters. To build projects in 25 countries
around the world, we take along our teams, technology, capacity for making things happen,
and thousands of Brazilian companies that supply goods and services.
More than 2,800 small, medium and large Brazilian companies exported goods and services
for Odebrecht projects and generated over USD 1.4 billion in foreign exchange for Brazil in 2012.
VILSO N PASTRE,
Commercial Director of Bompel –
safety footwear:
“Odebrecht has opened up new
markets for our company.
We’ve exported up to
1,000 pairs per day.
This partnership with Olex
has also made us invest more
in quality, and we achieved
ISO 9001:2008 certification.”
SALVADOR BENEVIDES,
General Director of Formaplan –
plywood and concrete formwork:
“Odebrecht and Olex have made
a major contribution to our growth,
boosting quality and opening
up new markets.”
LEONARDO RIBEIRO,
Managing Partner of Ferant Ind.
e Com. de Roupas – clothing
manufacturer: “We’ve invested to
meet Odebrecht’s quality
requirements, and thanks to our
experience with exports to Angola
through Olex, we’ve garnered
more clients in that country.”
RICARDO MITESTAINER,
Sales Director at Medabil –
metal construction systems:
“Olex centralizes Odebrecht’s
exports and continues
the relationship in different countries
and segments. As a result,
we have consolidated our brand
in markets with huge potential.”
OLEX IS THE COMPANY THAT HANDLES BRAZILIAN EXPORTS FOR ODEBRECHT PROJECTS.
Odebrecht informa
79
C I T I E S
ππContribution and significance: new bus shelters modernize São Paulo’s public
transport system
AN IDEA THAT
SUITS THE CITY
IN SÃO PAULO, NEW BUS SHELTERS
ARE BLENDING INTO THE URBAN LANDSCAPE
AND MAKING THE MEGACITY MORE ATTRACTIVE
Written by Elea Almeida | Photos by Murilo Mattos
80
A specific measure with a significance that is
far deeper than one might initially imagine. The
bus shelters in the city of São Paulo are changing. Designed to blend into the urban landscape,
500 new bus stops will help modernize the public transport system and make the megacity more
attractive. Expectations are that another thousand shelters will be installed by the end of 2013.
This renovation work is the responsibility of
Otima Concessionária de Exploração de Mobiliário
Urbano, a concession company created six months
ago that has already begun operations with a mega-challenge the size of São Paulo.
The rapid process of creating the company
–which is controlled by Odebrecht TransPort,
in partnership with Radio and TV Bandeirantes,
APMR Investimentos e Participações and
Kalítera Engenharia – is not the only sign of
Otima’s agility. The first bus shelter was installed on February 15, 2013, a month before the
deadline agreed with the client, the City of São
Paulo.
Violeta Noya, the CEO of Optima, reports
that Odebrecht had been studying the possibility of working in the area of urban bus shelters since 2011. A civil engineer, Violeta was
ππPassenger at a “structured chaos” bus shelter:
inspired by the megacity’s diversity
then a member of Odebrecht Participações e
Investimentos. “When assessing various projects, we realized that Otima enabled cross-cutting synergies within Odebrecht and would
make it possible to leverage the use of advertising for the benefit of other Group assets,” she
explains.
In 2012, the idea left the drawing board thanks
to a winning bid for the contract to install and
maintain bus shelters and totems for 25 years.
According to Violeta, the entire master plan was
developed during the annual holiday shutdown,
and a factory was mobilized to produce the prototypes of the new shelters on an industrial scale.
The efforts have paid off, and the first prototype
was ready by January 10.
Otima faces a major challenge: the company
has until the end of 2015 to replace 6,500 shelters and 12,500 totems that now serve 6 million daily bus passengers in the state capital.
Furthermore, during the concession period, it
will deploy 1,000 additional shelters and 2,200
thousand totems.
The company’s operations are complex because of the large variety of sidewalks in São
Paulo, which means that each bus stop must be
assessed before installing a new shelter. Then
the installation is done at night to avoid disrupting bus traffic. The old shelters are removed
and the existing foundations rebuilt. Then, the
structural part and glazing are installed, the bus
stop is lit, and finally, the totems and advertising
boards are installed.
Four models
To adapt them to the cultural and architectural diversity and urban contrasts of São Paulo’s
state capital, Otima’s team created four models
for bus shelters in partnership with designer
Guto Indio da Costa. Inspired by the city’s multiplicity, the “structured chaos” model has vertical and asymmetrical pillars. The “brutalist,” in
turn, is designed for slums and major arteries.
Areas with heritage sites will get the “minimalist with rhythm” model. The “hi-tech” model
will modernize the streets of financial centers.
All models meet the standards of accessibility for people with disabilities and make life
easier for passengers using wheelchairs and
strollers, as well as pregnant women. “Our shelters were inspired by the urban landscape of São
Paulo and its citizens in order to beautify the
city in harmony with the landscape. They are
Odebrecht informa
81
ππVioleta Noya: cross-cutting synergies within the Group
well lit and provide better protection from rain
and heat,” says Violeta Noya.
Laminated and tempered, the glass on the roofs
of the new models is 12 mm thick and the glass sides
are 10 mm thick. Film makes the glass shatterproof,
providing greater protection. The material is also embossed and coated with anti-ultraviolet and anti-infrared film. This blocks sunlight and reduces the ambient temperature by 5°C.
According to the concept Otima has introduced, the 6,500 new shelters will be equipped
with 2 m² two-sided advertising panels to resume
the exploration of outdoor media in the city.
Violeta Noya is very pleased to say that all the
advertising space has been sold. “Shortly after we
closed the deal with the city government, we began signing long-term contracts with major advertisers for the use of the space available in our
models,” says the CEO of Otima.
To date, the company has sold over 40,000
panel sides to 22 advertisers from 16 different agencies. The first companies to invest in
82
the project were AmBev, with ads for Skol and
Brahma beer, Telmex, with its Net cable TV and
IP services, and Visa. Other advertisers will include Vivo (telecommunications), Itaipava (beer),
Nivea, McDonald’s and Sky.
With only 50 company members, more than
half of them recent hires, Otima is conducting an acculturation program to disseminate the
Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology (TEO)
among its teams. “Everything we have achieved
is the result of teamwork and confidence in people, whether they are members who came from
within the Group or professionals who have just
joined the organization and are already engaged
in the mission of consolidating a benchmark
company and improving São Paulo,” says Violeta.
The results of this effort can be seen in the
city’s streets, and are confirmed by end user satisfaction surveys. According to a study conducted
by the Datafolha Institute, 85% of São Paulo citizens have rated the new bus shelters as excellent
or good. ]
S A V V Y
THE CRITICAL
STRUGGLE FOR A “YES”
ODEBRECHT PROPERTIES’ PLANNING AND OPPORTUNITIES DEVELOPMENT
DIRECTOR GIVES HIS PERSONAL STATEMENT IN THIS ISSUE
Written by Alice Galeffi | Photo by Ricardo Artner
m arcos
Marcos Lima made history at Odebrecht with his dedication,
wisdom, and keen eye for the “clues along the way.” After
serving as the Executive Director of Odebrecht Corretora de
Seguros, the Group’s captive brokerage, for 34 years, he is now
a Member of the Fiscal Board of the Odebrecht Foundation,
an Alternate Member of the Board of Directors of Braskem
and the Planning and Opportunities Director at Odebrecht
Properties, to name just a few of his current responsibilities.
The many challenges Marcos has tackled in his life started
at an early age. When he was just 9 years old, his father taught
him a lesson he will never forget: “If I asked you to go downtown and buy me a bag of cement, but you didn’t have any
money, how would you go about it?” The boy racked his brains
but could not come up with a response. Then his father told
him: “It’s simple. Ask the guy to bring the bag to our house,
li m a
and I’ll pay him when he gets here.” Marcos was intrigued by
the simplicity of that answer, and he soon realized that there is
no problem without a solution.
When he joined the organization, the Group’s founder, Norberto Odebrecht, set him the challenge of creating a
not-for-profit brokerage to take care of the company’s assets.
Marcos didn’t know anything about that area. The very same
day, he saw a newspaper ad that read: “First course for insurance brokers in Bahia.” He enrolled and presented his proposal for a corporate policy on insurance for the Group. Marcos
learned a great deal from his relationship with Norberto
Odebrecht. The most important one was understanding that
market rules are always the “floor” and not the "ceiling."
“Because we already know the ‘negative.’ The important thing
is to struggle for a ‘yes.’” ]
Watch the full interview Marcos Lima gave to the Savvy project on www.odebrechtonline.com.br
Odebrecht informa
83
Y O U T H
P R O T A G O N I S M
AT THE CORE
OF A PHILOSOPHY
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO, THE ODEBRECHT FOUNDATION
MADE YOUTH THE FOCUS OF ITS OPERATIONS
Written by Gabriela Vasconcellos | Photos by FernandoVivas
A love for the land has always been part of life
for Edivan Alcântara, 22. The youngest of five
siblings, he was the only one to stay in the
countryside, along with his parents. “I’ve always
dreamed of making a living from farming,” says
the resident of the Alto da Prata community in
the town of Presidente Tancredo Neves, BA. He
has no regrets.
Edivan says that his family’s encouragement
and a calling to work the land were the factors that
motivated him to enroll at the President Tancredo
Neves Rural Family House (CFR-PTN) in 2008. He
took a three-year technical qualification course in
Agriculture and learned about farm management,
cooperatives, soil management, irrigation, drainage
and a variety of crops. “I studied and put what I
learned into practice. In family farming, we are the
owners of our own business,” he argues.
During the second year of the course, Edivan
carried out his first productive educational project:
0.4 hectares of banana trees planted on his family’s small farm. That activity is part of the training
the Family House offers with the support of the
Tribute to the Future program, which funds activities certified by the Odebrecht Foundation through
allocations of income tax owed by Odebrecht
Group members. “My second production project
was in the CFR-PTN’s top 10. With the profits
ππEdivan Alcântara: “In family farming we are the owners of our own business”
84
ππFrom left, sisters Camila and Taisa, and their mother, Paulina do Rosário: “The future
is what we’re doing now,” says Taisa
from those crops, I made enough money to buy a
piece of land. So I’ve grown as a farmer.”
Edivan became an assistant teacher at the President
Tancredo Neves Rural Producers’ Cooperative (Coopatan)
and CFR-PTN, institutions linked to the Growth
Program with Sustainability for the Southern Bahia
Lowlands Environmental Protection Areas Mosaic
(PDCIS), an initiative developed by the Odebrecht
Foundation and partners from the public and private
sectors. “I help young students and cooperative members develop their crops,” he says.
Despite all these achievements, the young
man still faced a challenge – the shortage of land
on his family’s farm, which had forced his siblings
to leave the countryside. “They couldn’t find any
opportunities here.” But things have been different for Edivan. In 2013, an initiative of the CFRPTN, in partnership with Coopatan, which is also
associated with the school, enabled him to acquire
land and expand his crops. Through the Land
Access Fund, a pilot project that provides financial assistance to small farmers, he and six other young people are receiving the aid they need to
implement agricultural projects so they can make
a living from the income generated in the countryside.
“I’ve fulfilled the dream of expanding my farm
to 20 hectares,” says Edivan, a rural entrepreneur
who plans to double his income in a year. Today he
makes BRL 1,300.00 per month. He firmly believes
that working alongside his parents and on his own
property is the way to go. “Getting where I want to
go just depends on me.”
Youth Protagonism
Stories like Edivan’s reinforce the ethos of
the Odebrecht Foundation’s mission, which made
young people the focus of its activities 25 years
ago. The decision to work with youths instead of
for them, viewing them as part of the solution and
Odebrecht informa
85
not as a problem, was later conceptualized, systematized and called Youth Protagonism, a philosophy that is now a legacy of the Third Sector.
“One of our pillars is the awareness that the
family is the mother cell of the production of society’s moral and material wealth, and that within it,
young people act as agents of change,” says Mauricio
Medeiros, the Foundation’s Executive President.
Taisa da Luz, 17, believes that too. A student at
the Agroforestry Family House (CFAF), where she
is completing a technical course in forestry that
is integrated with the regular high school curriculum, she has found a way to change her future
prospects. “We are transforming something that
nature gives us to generate jobs and income,” says
the resident of the Jatimane maroon community in
Nilo Peçanha, Bahia. “The future is what we’re doing now,” she adds.
She is participating in the Jewels of the
Quilombo project, supported by the Oi Futuro
Institute, taking on the challenge of making earrings, necklaces, rings and bracelets from coco
nut shells. She learned the craft techniques
from qualified instructors trained by the Pratigi
Environmental Protection Area Rural Producers’
Cooperative (Cooprap), in partnership with the
Mauá Institute. CFAF and Cooprap are also part
of the PDCIS. “We can always learn new things.
Opportunities need to be created.”
Davison Silva, 15, is following Edivan’s
and Taisa’s example. He began studying at the
Igrapiúna Rural Family House in 2013. Also part
of the PDCIS, that educational unit teaches
methods of developing crops that Davison already grows along with his father. “I consider
myself a farmer, and I’m going to study so I can
use all my knowledge,” emphasizes the resident
of the Domingos Cruz community in Camamu
county.
His father, Antonio da Silva, 38, believes in this
partnership. “I have the practical know-how and he
has technical know-how. Davison is learning and
teaching me a lot. He convinced me to stop using
chemical fertilizer,” he says. Davison dreams of becoming a role model for his region, just like Edivan.
“I want to be of service to the countryside.” ]
ππDavison Silva and his father, Antonio: working together to improve farming methods and achieve their life goals
86
click
ππBeachside scene in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
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PROGRAMS AT ODEBRECHT S.A.
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EDITORIAL COORDINATION
Versal Editores
Editor-in-Chief José Enrique Barreiro
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English Translation H. Sabrina Gledhill
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Printing 626 copies • Pre-Press and Printing Pancrom
Editorial offices: Rio de Janeiro +55 21 2239-4023
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e-mail: [email protected]
Originally published in Portuguese. Also available
in Spanish.
contribution
Alemão Cable-Car System. Urban transport infrastructure that improves the quality of life of thousands of residents in a historically low-income
community in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro. More than that: it is a key to integrating their community with the city. An area that was once avoided
by residents of other parts of Rio, Alemão is now a tourist attraction. And the cable-car system is playing an important role in that transformation,
which is social, but above all, emotional, because it begins and ends with boosting the self-esteem of that community’s residents.