How a concrete mattress is made in Pilar
National industry inside an engineering project: the part of our story we tell the least
The concrete mattress lining the bank of the Paraguay River did not arrive in a container: it was made in the town of Pilar, in our plant, on our own looms. That changes two things a designer cares about: lead time, because we do not depend on a shipment to start, and size, because the panels are cut and sewn for the geometry of that project, not the other way round.
The fabric
A high-strength double-layer fabric, joined by filter points, arrives in rolls at the plant. It is the form later filled with concrete.
The seam
Each panel is sewn on an industrial machine, with seams that must withstand pumping pressure and the weight of the concrete.
Made to measure
A laser pointer guides the cut: each panel is sized for its stretch of slope, with the gradient and length of that project.
Large panels
Large panels reduce joints on site. Sewing them takes space, two operators and method.
Handling
A sewn panel is heavy and is folded with care: that is how it travels to site, ready to be laid over the slope.
The edge
The edge seam, with high-tenacity thread, is the one that receives the anchoring and the join with the neighbouring panel.
The bay
A spread-out panel fills the whole bay. It is the real scale of what later looks white from the air.
The closure
The zips and closures where the concrete goes in are fitted last. On site, the panel is laid, joined and pumped.
From the plant to the slope
After sewing, the panel is laid over the prepared slope, joined to its neighbour and pumped with fluid concrete. That is how the 172,000 m² of the Pilar riverbank defence were made.