Rota de Santa Maria (Sacyr Concesiones) is implementing an innovative high-speed load-control system for trucks on the RSC-287 highway in the State of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil).

“This is a decisive step toward a smarter, safer, and future-ready roadway,” says the Concessionaire’s CEO, Leandro Conterato.
The new system, known as HS-WIM (High-Speed Weigh-In-Motion), relies on quartz (piezo-quartz) sensor technology—one of the most advanced solutions available today.

Its purpose is to monitor vehicle weight limits automatically. The process does not affect travel speed: weight sensors embedded in the pavement work together with cameras and laser detectors installed on overhead gantries to classify and identify each vehicle.

 

As vehicles pass under the overhead gates, they are scanned and weighed automatically, providing an instant data readout.

“This technology makes it possible to inspect 100% of freight vehicles, 24 hours a day, with greater efficiency and without disrupting traffic. Beyond helping reduce harmful emissions, it delivers significant gains in sustainability, safety, and logistics competitiveness” the CEO highlights.

HS-WIM represents a major leap compared to traditional weighing stations, which require trucks to slow down or come to a complete stop.

Along with more effective load monitoring, the system brings clear environmental and operational benefits: shorter travel times, fewer accidents, and lower fuel consumption—all of which contribute to reducing atmospheric emissions.

Rota de Santa Maria is developing a calculation tool to estimate the volume of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions avoided through the implementation of the HS-WIM system.

Construction works for this system are well advanced, and testing is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2026.

About Rota de Santa Maria

Sacyr Concesiones, through the Rota de Santa Maria concessionaire, has been responsible since 2021 for operating 204 km of the RSC-287 highway. Major widening and improvement works are underway, including the duplication of 200 km of road.

This corridor connects the key cities of the central region of Rio Grande do Sul with the state capital, Porto Alegre.

Monumental Building Project Team
Project Manager: Nuno Pereira

Sacyr Somague was responsible for the comprehensive renovation and rehabilitation of the Monumental Building for Merlin Properties. Located on Praça Duque de Saldanha, one of Lisbon’s main avenues, the building was originally constructed in the 1990s. It occupies a special place in the city’s collective memory, having replaced the legendary Teatro Monumental, a striking urban landmark demolished in the 1980s.

The building comprises 14 above-ground floors and 6 underground levels, designed for a mixed use of offices and retail spaces. The project followed Merlin Properties’ core principles: architectural quality, environmental responsibility, and strict sustainability standards aimed at obtaining LEED and WELL certifications.

Demolition & Waste Management

The project began with an extensive non-structural demolition phase, including façades, roofing, mechanical and electrical systems, and interior partitions. In addition, one of the main access staircases was demolished to improve the building’s access and evacuation conditions.

LEED and WELL criteria required that at least 75% of non-hazardous construction and demolition waste be recycled or reused. To achieve this, a floor-by-floor strategy was implemented, focusing on team awareness, on-site cleanliness, and the provision of clearly identified waste containers.

Access for heavy vehicles was extremely limited—only one truck could load at a time, and the exterior storage area could hold no more than two containers. Given the daily waste volumes, logistics management became one of the most critical aspects of the demolition phase.

To overcome these constraints, a tailored Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) removal plan was developed. Waste was extracted directly from each floor to a truck via plastic chutes and conduits, which required creating openings in the floor slabs and providing localized shoring for structural support.

Thanks to this meticulous approach, the project achieved a 99% recycling and reuse rate—a remarkable success that surpassed the initial sustainability targets.

Structural Reinforcements & Seismic Upgrading

Given the change in the building’s intended use, the project included significant interventions in its structural framework—such as creating new staircase openings, reinforcing open-plan areas, and upgrading the structure to meet modern seismic regulations.

These modifications required reinforcing multiple existing horizontal and vertical structural elements, extending from the affected floors down to the foundations. Reinforcement of the vertical components represented a major undertaking, with considerable cost implications and a defining impact on the project’s critical path.

Facade Transformation & Integration with the Existing Structure

A central aspect of the rehabilitation was the complete replacement of the existing facade with an active curtain wall system. Designed by the renowned architectural firm Broadway in collaboration with a specialist facade contractor, the new solution features double-skin aluminum and glass modules incorporating forced ventilation, air return systems, and internal operable windows.

These modules are anchored to the primary structure through an aluminum fixing system, designed to transmit project loads and accommodate building movement.

Project Completion

The Monumental Building renovation was successfully completed in 2021, delivering high client satisfaction thanks to Sacyr’s added value, on-time delivery, cost efficiency, and commitment to the rigorous quality standards required by Merlin Properties. This success was made possible by the dedication and expertise of the Sacyr Somague team.

ISABEL RUBIO ARROYO | Tungsteno

Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky didn’t just design the modern kitchen—she envisioned a more efficient home and a future where women would have more time to themselves. With her iconic 1927 Frankfurt Kitchen, she sought to optimise every movement within the home. Her design introduced features we now take for granted, such as continuous countertops, well-organised drawers, and a meticulously planned workflow. Yet what began as a symbol of female emancipation, intended to free women from endless domestic labour, was eventually criticised as a space that isolated and confined them instead.

"You can kill a person with an apartment."

Schütte-Lihotzky was one of the first women in Austria to graduate in architecture. Although her family held progressive views for the time, they initially disapproved of her career choice, believing that no one would hire a woman to design a house in 1916. Her interest in social housing arose after observing the harsh living conditions of Vienna’s working class. She witnessed nine people sharing a single room and tenants subletting beds for a few hours a day. "You can kill a person with an apartment just as well as with an axe," wrote the German artist Heinrich Zille, a quote that the architect would later include in her own memoirs.

Following the First World War, Germany faced a severe housing shortage, leading to large-scale social housing projects for working-class families. At that time, workers' homes typically had only two main rooms: one served as the space for cooking, bathing, eating and sleeping, and the other functioned as a living area. This layout resulted in poor hygiene and a lack of functional differentiation between the work area and the relaxation area. Schütte-Lihotzky designed the Frankfurt Kitchen as part of an affordable public housing programme. Her goal was to streamline domestic work and reduce the time women spent on kitchen tasks.

The iconic Frankfurt Kitchen. Credit: The Design Museum

The prototype of the modern kitchen

The Frankfurt Kitchen came to be recognised as the prototype of the modern fitted kitchen and as one of the greatest revolutions in 20th-century social housing design. It introduced features that are now standard, such as continuous worktops, tiled splashbacks, built-in drawers, and storage-optimised cabinets. The design featured a sliding door to separate the kitchen from the living room. To maximise efficiency, Schütte-Lihotzky based her layout on studies and interviews with housewives, aiming to minimise unnecessary movement within the space. The kitchen was designed so efficiently that a woman could move from the sink to the stove without taking a single step.

Around 10,000 units of the Frankfurt Kitchen were built for the social housing projects designed by architect Ernst May. Today, original examples can be seen in museums around the world, including the MoMA in New York. For Schütte-Lihotzky, the real goal of this kitchen design was to promote social reform and contribute to the emancipation of women by reducing the burden of unpaid domestic labour. Her intention was to give women more time for education, work, and leisure.

The Frankfurt Kitchen at the MoMA museum. Credit: The Museum of Modern Art

However, over time, that vision came under criticism. Beginning in the 1970s, some feminist movements argued that that, far from liberating women, the kitchen had in fact become a space of confinement, designed exclusively for women's work. Its compact size and tight proportions, intended to reduce costs and optimise movement, meant that it was impossible for more than one person to use the space comfortably. This inadvertently reinforced the notion of the kitchen as a private and solitary realm reserved solely for women.

An overshadowed legacy

Schütte-Lihotzky took her social commitment beyond architecture, becoming actively involved in politics and the anti-fascist resistance. She joined the Austrian Communist Party in 1938 and was arrested by the Gestapo in 1941. Her ideals brought her professional hardships in Cold War-era Austria, and in 1988 she rejected the Austrian Medal for Science and Art in protest against what she saw as the sitting president's complicity in Nazi war crimes.

Her other projects—often overshadowed by the Frankfurt Kitchen—included the design of flats for single working women and groundbreaking innovation in educational spaces. She designed kindergartens using a modular construction system that included cots, changing tables, chairs, desks, and other objects that made the space more flexible. Schütte-Lihotzky died in 2000 at the age of 102. Although the Frankfurt Kitchen remained her most famous work, she ultimately regretted that it had come to define her legacy. At the age of 101, she exclaimed, "If I had known that everyone would keep talking about nothing else, I would never have built that damned kitchen!"

Tungsten is a journalistic laboratory that explores the essence of innovation.

ISABEL RUBIO ARROYO | Tungsteno

They may be man's best friends, but their loyalty goes far beyond simple companionship. With a sense of smell thousands of times more powerful than our own, and an extraordinary intelligence and trainability, dogs have become modern heroes, able to detect leaks, identify pests, assist in medical diagnoses, and perform feats that have saved many lives.

Leak detection dogs

Some dogs have transformed the way hidden leaks in underground drinking water networks are detected. Suki is a pioneer in Latin America, identifying leaks that would otherwise remain invisible, even beneath asphalt or soil. The process begins with satellite imagery to pinpoint critical areas, after which the dog tracks and accurately marks the precise location of the leak thanks to her remarkable sense of smell, capable of detecting chlorine deep underground. "After rigorous training, Suki has covered 235 kilometres, detecting 608 leaks with a 96% success rate, helping to recover enough water to supply more than 10,000 people for a year," explained Franco Nicoletti, Distribution and Collection Manager at Aguas Andinas, in an interview with the newspaper EL PAÍS.

Suki, a dog trained in Chile to detect hidden underground water leaks. Credit: CNN Chile

Similar programmes have also been implemented in countries such as Belgium, where the company The Sniffers began using dogs in 1991 to detect leaks in rural and hard-to-reach chemical installations. "Our dogs locate gas leaks, oil leaks, leaks in oil-cooled high-voltage cables, and even illegal taps quickly, accurately and efficiently," the company explains.

Dogs that track hidden pests

Termites cause significant damage to buildings around the world, and some dogs are specially trained to detect them. In the 1980s, researchers at Ohio State University certified teams of beagles capable of locating live termite colonies, even when only eight specimens were present in a piece of wood. Canines can also detect mould. According to the company Mold Solutions, they can identify spores and mycotoxins with a sensitivity 1,000 to 10,000 times greater than that of humans. This ability speeds up inspections by pinpointing mould without the need for invasive methods, saving both time and money.

Allies in laboratories

Thanks to their remarkable olfactory ability, which enables them to identify specific volatile organic compounds associated with various pathologies, dogs are also emerging as a powerful tool for the early detection and screening of human diseases. Trained dogs can distinguish between samples from healthy individuals and those with conditions such as different types of cancer (e.g. lung, prostate, breast, ovarian, melanoma and osteosarcoma) or viral infections like COVID-19.

Researchers train dogs to detect COVID-19. Credit: CBS New York

In controlled studies, dogs have demonstrated an ability to detect COVID-19 with a sensitivity from 81% to 97% and a specificity ranging from 91% to 100%. Researchers note that these results are comparable to those of conventional diagnostic tests, although they can vary depending on factors such as the quality of training, how samples are handled, and the dog's experience. However, the use of dogs in hospitals remains limited due to a lack of standardised protocols and the need for larger-scale studies.

Four-legged heroes

Throughout history, many dogs have stood out for their loyalty, courage, and intelligence, accomplishing feats that made them true legends. Laika, a stray dog from Moscow, was the first living creature to orbit the Earth in 1957, a sacrifice that paved the way for human space exploration. Balto and Togo, Siberian sled dogs, led the "Great Race of Mercy" in 1925, transporting diphtheria anti-toxin to Nome, Alaska, and saving numerous lives.

Laika was a stray dog from Moscow who went down in history as the first living creature to orbit the Earth. Credit: Euronews

Other dogs that gained fame and recognition for their extraordinary exploits include Sergeant Stubby, a bull terrier who became the most highly decorated dog of the First World War for his work in detection and rescue missions in the trenches. Another renowned dog is Barry, a St. Bernard who rescued more than 40 people in the Swiss Alps in the 19th century. His embalmed body is on display in a museum in Bern in tribute to his heroism. These examples illustrate how dogs have left an indelible mark on history through their courage and loyalty.

Tungsten is a journalistic laboratory that explores the essence of innovation.