Meddelande

Road to Armazones Started

14 mars 2014

The civil works for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) have begun. The Chilean company, ICAFAL Ingeniería y Construcción S.A. (ICAFAL), has started construction of a road to the summit of Cerro Armazones.

Currently there is no paved road from the public highway to the top of the mountain. The road construction work is expected to take 16 months and will provide access to the summit for the future construction work on the giant telescope.

Once complete, the road will be 11 metres wide in total, with an asphalt paved driveway of 7 metres width.

ICAFAL will also be responsible for the levelling of the top of the mountain later this year and additional civil works. The peak must be modified to create a platform to construct the telescope and other supporting facilities.

The start of telescope operations is planned for early in the next decade, when the E-ELT will begin to tackle the biggest astronomical challenges of our time. The giant telescope will allow an exciting exploration of completely unknown realms of the Universe. It will be the largest optical/near-infrared telescope in the world: “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”.

Länkar

Kontakter

Roberto Tamai
E-ELT Programme Manager
Garching bei München, Germany
Tel: +49 89 3200 6367
Email: rtamai@eso.org

Richard Hook
ESO Public Information Officer
Garching bei München, Germany
Tel: +49 89 3200 6655
Cell: +49 151 1537 3591
Email: rhook@eso.org

Om meddelandet

ID:ann14019

Bilder

Road to Armazones started
Road to Armazones started
Map of the road to Cerro Armazones
Map of the road to Cerro Armazones
On the road to Armazones
On the road to Armazones
Cerro Armazones - site of the future E-ELT
Cerro Armazones - site of the future E-ELT
Cerro Armazones
Cerro Armazones

Videor

Fly-over of the planned road to Armazones
Fly-over of the planned road to Armazones