The Las Salinas project hired the multinational as Project Manager to lead the decontamination and recovery plan for the land where the former oil companies were located for more than 80 years, after the Environmental Evaluation Service gave the green light to the project to clean up the 16-hectare site in Viña del Mar. is an international independent professional services and engineering firm with more than 60 years of experience in the management of environmental projects of various kinds. In Chile, the multinational will be responsible for implementing a holistic solution to integrate the Las Salinas site into the urban fabric of the city. The Development Manager of Inmobiliaria Las Salinas, Esteban Undurraga, says that the choice of Inmobiliaria Las Salinas responds to the wide range of environmental success stories he has managed in various parts of the world. “He was actively involved in rehabilitating the riverbank that crosses the city of Bilbao and in the construction of the Guggenheim Museum of modern art, which is an architectural jewel. Therefore, we are confident that, with the experience of this firm, we will find the best company to execute the bioremediation plan”. The environmental consulting firm is already working on the construction of the bidding conditions to hire the company to execute the decontamination plan through the bioremediation and bioaugmentation technique to decontaminate the soils and waters of the Las Salinas site. In relation to this, the Technical Director of Contaminated Soils and Sustainable Remediation of , German Monge, emphasizes having the opportunity to participate in the most relevant decontamination project in Chile. “Our main objective and what moves us to participate decisively in this project from our position as PM, is to return and integrate this space to the city of Viña del Mar, to put it at the service of its inhabitants,” says the environmental expert. With a team of more than 3,500 professionals, the multinational has developed more than 60,000 projects in more than 125 different countries and, more specifically, has managed environmental projects of diverse nature in Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Spain, the United Kingdom, Turkey, among others. In this line, Lourdes Ruiz, Project Director at Portsmouth, highlights similar experiences to that of Las Salinas, such as, for example, the former tar dock and fuel logistics center in Portsmouth, United Kingdom, where the global firm carried out the rehabilitation of contaminated soils to house a residential complex. In this respect, Ruiz comments that Portsmouth has a high social license, because “in general, cleanup and remediation projects are perceived as something positive among the citizens, since they are perceived as the elimination of a potential source of public health and environmental damage, as well as an opportunity for socioeconomic development in the geographical area of action”. Thus, it has a wide experience beyond project management, such as the performance of characterization studies, environmental diagnostics, quantitative risk analysis studies, drafting of remediation projects, technical assistance in soil and groundwater remediation, environmental audits, remaining soil studies, excavation projects, etc.
On the other hand, according to Monge, another of the motivations for participating in the recovery work at Las Salinas is that “we are very fortunate to be able to count on the academics and scientists who are members of the Strategic Sanitation Committee, which has given us the opportunity to meet important academics in Valparaíso”.
