Geotechnical Survey Campaign for the Salvador–Itaparica Bridge in Brazil Comes to a Close

On April 4, in the Bay of Todos-os-Santos (Bahia, Brazil), the closing ceremony of the geotechnical survey campaign for the Salvador–Itaparica Bridge took place — a project in which Sener has played a key role. The event brought together representatives from the public-private partnership promoted by the State of Bahia, as well as from the awarded construction companies CCCC and CRBE. Débora Prieto and Bruno Vellasco attended on behalf of Sener’s Project, Valuation, and Engineering (PVI) team, led by Jordi Revoltos. In this project, Sener was responsible for the value engineering, preliminary design, and two phases on basic design phases (Stages 1, 2, 3, and 4). Sener participated in the drilling campaign, providing a geologist in the field to supervise the work carried out, in addition to the entire geotechnical back-office team in Madrid and São Paulo (led by Dario de la Peña), who analyzed the drilling reports and laboratory tests that the client sent every week.

Over the course of twelve months, Sener’s team oversaw each stage of the survey, including borehole drilling that reached depths of up to 200 meters — the deepest ever performed in Brazil — to collect intact subsurface samples. This achievement, accomplished under highly demanding conditions (including a 400-meter-wide navigation channel and water depths of up to 60 meters), ensures the quality and reliability of the geotechnical data that will underpin the final structural design.

The Salvador–Itaparica Bridge, with a total length of approximately 12,500 meters, includes a central cable-stayed span of 922 meters, with a minimum vertical clearance of 85 meters above the maximum water level. It is flanked by two access bridges measuring 4,635 meters on the Itaparica Island side and 6,876.85 meters on the Salvador side. Thanks to the work carried out by Sener, the construction companies now have the models and technical documentation needed to move forward with the execution of the foundations and the assembly of the bridge structures.

This milestone further strengthens Sener’s positioning in large-scale infrastructure projects and highlights the company’s commitment to innovation and engineering excellence in some of the world’s most challenging environments.