Precast concrete elements have already proved their feasibility in different settings. Although industrialized concrete construction is more evolved in Brazil, other Latin American countries share similar advances.

During the last year’s Concrete Show, the Brazilian Association of Industrialized Concrete Construction (Abcic) promoted the seminar Advances and Feasibility of Precast Concrete in Latin America.

One of the topics discussed was “Advances in Precast Concrete in Latin America and its Feasibility – Real Cases”.

Rodrigo Sciaraffia, Civil Engineer and Founder and Regional Director (LATAM) of Discovery Precast, from Chile, was responsible for speaking on the subject. Check out some of the points he addressed!

First contact with precast concrete

Rodrigo Sciaraffia started the seminar talking about his professional career and how his first contact with precast concrete took place.

In 2008, he was hired by a company to work on the Viaducto Metro, a 3.2 km-long project in Santiago, the capital of Chile.

“I hadn’t seen precast concrete before, and I very quickly had to take on the role of coordinating, manufacturing, handling logistics and transporting precast beams with 20 to 35 meters in length,” recalled the guest.

“This was my first experience getting to know precast concrete plants, engineering processes, manufacturing, transportation, assembly, and quality control,” he added.

During years working with precast concrete, Sciaraffia highlighted the performance in the construction of bridges, stadiums, buildings, parking lots, among others. “Anything that can be built with reinforced concrete can be built with precast elements”.

Summary of identified barriers

Another very important topic that was addressed by the international guest revolved around the obstacles for those who want to start working with precast concrete. He mentioned six of them:

  • Early stage design;
  • Engineering;
  • Administrative issues;
  • Employability issues;
  • Constructive techniques;
  • Economic issues.

Regarding employability issues, for instance, Sciaraffia pointed out that many workers thought that the arrival of precast products would mean they would lose their jobs, since there would no longer be a need or place for them at the construction site.

“There are six issues that we should all address due to the value chain that the precast industry offers”, he analyzed.

Shortage of places to live in Latin America

Rodrigo Sciaraffia also brought up the reality of the shortage of places to live in virtually all Latin American countries. He uses Chile as an example.

“Chile is short of 500,000 homes. And there are housing solutions that can be built quickly and are very competitive”, he analyzed.

Leanr more about the Concrete Show – the constructive chain event.