OREANDA-NEWS. March 07, 2013. ArcelorMittal is supplying 6,000 tonnes of rebar that will be used to an 11km bridge in Venezuela. The bridge – the third over the Orinoco river and also the third-longest bridge in the world - will connect the cities of Caicara de Orinoco and Cabruta, significantly improving transport across between the States of Bolivar and Guarico.

Distribution Solutions' business division international has been coordinating the supply, working in close collaboration with our mill in Las Truchas, Mexico – which supplied the steel – and the customer, construction company Odebrecht Venezuela.

The new bridge will considerably improve connections between the two cities, providing an alternative to the ferry, the traditional – although slow and expensive – means of transport between Bolivar and Guarico.

The bridge will carry both road and rail passengers, with two road lanes in each direction. At a height of 40m, navigation of the Orinoco river will not be affected by the new bridge.

More than just steels
In order to be able to supply the steels for this large-scale project, our business division international had to complete 12 months of preparatory work. ArcelorMittal Las Truchas certified the compliance of its rebar with the Covenin Norm 316 – a requirement for the steel to be used in the bridge - and won the necessary approval from Sencamer, the Venezuelan authority body which assesses the compliance of services and materials with technical standards.

Once these steps were completed, Distribution Solutions finalized the contract with our customer and Las Truchas, and the production of the 6,000t of rebar could finally begin.

The 6,000t of rebars were dispatched to Venezuela at the end of December 2012 and received by Odebrecht Venezuela in the second week of January 2013. Completion of the new bridge is estimated to be 2015-2016.