Economy
The principal economic activity in the Bío Bío Region is composed of the timber and fisheries industries, and on a minor scale, agriculture, manufacturing and services. Concepción is the largest urban center with a population of over one million, which offers commercial, tourism, educational and health services. The neighboring city Talcahuano is the Region’s industrial center, where most of Chile’s steel manufacturing, shipbuilding, and national oil refining is located. It is also a military port and home for the naval shipbuilder ASMAR, which builds the countries fleet of submarines.
In the agriculture sector, the traditional crops produced are grains, vegetables, forage, legumes, and dairy and beef cattle.
Concepción, the region capital
Located 515 km. south of Santiago. Regular daily flights are available from Santiago, which take 50 minutes. Access by roadway is on the Panamercian Ruta 5 South, aproximately 6 hours.
Earthquake in Chile
The earthquake that Chile experienced in 2010 occured at 03:34:17 local time on February 27, 2010, reached a magnitude of 9.2 MW according to the United States Geological Survey and the National Seismology Service in Chile. The epicenter was located on the coast, approximately 150 km. northwest of Concepción. Due to the submarine location of the epicenter and its proximity to the coast, a large part of the damage was due to the resulting tsunami that occurred and hit the coast of the Bío Bío Region.
Due to this catastrophe, the Ministry of Public Works developed a Program of Emergency and Reconstruction of Infrastructure, to be executed throughout the years 2010 – 2014.
The objective is to repair and replace the damaged infrastructure in the affected regions, recuperating the serviceable and accomodating aspects of communities to the same standards as before the earthquake, prioritizing the functional roles of infrastructure in accordance to social needs of connectivity and productivity, and identifying de definite solutions for the future.
The strategic outline that the Ministry has defined to face this challenge to advance in the learning required for the proper evaluation of design and construction techniques that will allow for necessary corrections for the future. In other words, use this catastrophe as an opportunity to generate innovation and improvements in construction techniques and projects.
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Talcahuano
Just north of Concepción is Talcahuano, a principal port city in Chile’s southern region, and home of sight-seeing attractions such as the ship Monitor Huáscar, Hualpén Park and Museum, Hualpén Peninsula and Natural Sanctuary, scenic viewpoint from Martínez de Rosas Street, the Huachipato steel factory, among other tourist attractions.
Situated between two large bays of the Pacific Ocean, the privileged location of Talcahuano provides this city with two deep and protected ports: Talcahuano and San Vicente.
These port terminals serve for commerce, industry, commercial and artisanal fishing, military defense and petroleum refining, which serve Chile’s entire southern region.
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