Metro Santiago – Building an urban tunneling industry from the ground up

In the early year 2000, the Santiago’s subway network was comprised of not more than 40 km and 46 stations with only about half percent of its network being of underground construction, mainly with cut & cover boxes. Nowadays, with the additional 17.5 km of new line extensions planned to be completed in 2009, the subway network will have shown a considerable expansion reaching a total length of 104.5 km and 108 stations, with over 60 km of mined tunnels and more than 70 underground stations.