Better Roads

April 2014

Better Roads Digital Magazine

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Today, the Bogota-based company ranks as one of the Top 5 Colombian highway contractors and has landed a number of high-profi le projects and awards, including a $400 million, fi ve-year highway contract in Bucaramanga, Colombia. MHC's roots trace back to 1920 when the company was founded by owner Mario Huertas's great uncle. At the time, it worked exclusively in the ports on the Magdalena River, the principal river of Colombia that fl ows north through the western half of the country. Years later, Huertas's father started his own company, expanding the family business into other construction and infrastructure-related activities including roads, bridges, viaducts and residential building at the district, state and national level. Now, for the past 39 years, Huertas has been leading the company and works with his son, 28-year-old Esteban, who represents the fourth generation in the family business. With more than 900 employees and $600 million in contracts, MHC is well established as a progressive pioneer in the in- dustry accustomed to conquering massive civil engineering projects in challenging conditions. The company has earned recognition with the prestigious National Engineering Prize for its work on the Sesquile Dam and currently has two contracts with INVIAS (National Highway Institute). "Mario Huertas Corporation is not just a large company in Colombia, but it is truly an engineering company," says Hugo Diaz, sales representative for Rodríguez y Loñdono, a KPI-JCI and Astec Mobile Screens authorized dealer in Colombia. "It is recognized for its quality and innovation. Mario Huertas is a person who is always thinking about the technology and equipment, on how to improve processes by automating them and is always updated with what is going on in the world in order to apply it to Colombia. "He is absolutely a pioneer in this industry," Diaz adds. Infrastructure challenges Developing infrastructure in a country riddled with moun- tains and jungles is no easy feat. When Huertas won the bid out of 22 other contractors to construct an 87-mile, four-lane highway across the Andes Mountains between Bucaramanga and Cúcuta, the company was tasked with the mammoth challenge of designing and building the country's fi rst four-lane road – as well as all of the bridges and tunnels – located in a mountain range. "It is a diffi cult task given its components, such as colluvi- ums, clay, sandstones and also parts with veins of limestone," Better Roads April 2014 17 The GT165DF track-mounted screens make it possible for Mario Huertas Corporation to classify the raw aggregates and remove the fines.

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