The Limon Dam, part of the Olmos Transandino Project, is an under construction multi-purpose concrete-face rock-fill embankment dam on the Huancabamba River in northwestern Peru, located to the south of Guabal. When completed, the dam will help produce 4,000 GWh of electricity per year and transfer water from the Cajamarca region west to Lambayeque, near Olmos for the reclamation and irrigation of 150,000 hectares of farmland.
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The water transfer accomplished by the Limon Dam on the Huancabamba River which will divert up to 2,000,000,000 cubic metres (7.0629333443×1010 cu ft) of water a year through a 12.5 miles (20 km) trans-Andean tunnel to the Olmos Valley.[1] The Limon Dam will be an 43 metres (141 ft) high, 320 metres (1,050 ft) long embankment dam and when full, it will withhold a reservoir of 44,000,000 cubic metres (1.553845336×109 cu ft). In addition, the dam will house a hydroelectricity power plant with a 600 MW capacity.[2] The greatest feature and engineering challenge of the project was the deep trans-Andean tunnel as it connects the Atlantic side of the Andes (Amazon Basin) with the Pacific side.
Designs for the project date back to the 1980s. Construction on the project began in 2006 with Brazil's Odebrecht drilling the tunnel with a tunnel boring machine. The tunnel was complete in late 2008 and a contract for the hydro power station is set to be issued in February 2010.[3] The project will cost $190 million in total and should begin transferring water in 2010.
The project was profiled in the May 18, 2009 episode of Build it Bigger.
