In 2018, a new section of urban expressway in Lima – South America’s fifth largest city – was completed. The works greatly improved traffic conditions and considerably reduced journey times in this booming urban area. We report on this “smart infrastructure” project.

To understand Lima as it is today and imagine how it will look tomorrow, we need to put down the guidebooks, move off the beaten track and look at an extraordinary site: the expressways crossing the capital – two arteries that speak volumes about a unique city that is always ready to reinvent itself.

VINCI Highways completed construction of section 2 of this strategic project in 2018. Today, almost 200,000 vehicles take these two urban motorways connecting residential districts to Callao, the city’s business district, every day. A record number that perfectly illustrates VINCI Highways’ goal: to increase traffic volumes while easing congestion and guaranteeing safe and comfortable driving. The work carried out in Lima has markedly improved traffic conditions and cut journey times, giving new energy to this city of 10 million residents that will soon be home to 40% of the country’s population.

It was immediately apparent that this unique project, which mobilised up to 5,000 people at its peak, would be a genuine technical challenge because of the constraints arising from the geologically complex and dense urban environment.

But VINCI Highways’ teams successfully completed the construction work in just 15 months while simultaneously ensuring maintenance and service continuity on the section already in operation. Thanks to the expertise in innovation and customer service brought to the project, Lima’s expressways have made the transition to smart infrastructure: more than 120 integrated security cameras continuously monitor traffic, feeding information to two 24/7 operations centres. One of them is specifically dedicated to the 2 km “smart tunnel”, which is kitted out with state-of-the-art ventilation systems, a fire-extinguishing device, video surveillance and an incident detection system – a first in Peru. The number of e-customers has increased by over 150% in two years, pushing the subscriber base to over 100,000. And, the first Mobility-as-a-Service initiatives were rolled out this year with Real Plaza, Peru’s leading shopping centre chain, which now lets customers use their toll badge to pay for parking. This outcome was made possible by the strength of our people and our HR strategy: firstly, thanks to the successful transition between the construction and operation-maintenance teams, and secondly, through the transmission of high-level know-how to local teams, orchestrated by VINCI Highways. Here, the team called on experts from its international network, leveraging their experience to train local employees and upgrade skills and project standards. The process didn’t stop there: the teams trained in Lima now travel to other project sites to pass on their newly gained expertise.

Another facet of this determination to lead by example can be seen in the project’s strong focus on corporate social responsibility. The initiatives put in place include a road safety campaign in neighbourhoods (schools and police stations), rehabilitation of public spaces in disadvantaged neighbourhoods and supporting communities through social, educational and sports programmes. This exemplary commitment was recognised in 2018 by the ESR® – Empresa Socialmente Responsable – trophy, one of Latin America’s most prestigious CSR awards.