Construction of the ALMA road

To reach the ALMA site, a private road was built in order to connect the public road between the villages of San Pedro de Atacama and Toconao, on the east edge of the Atacama salt-lake, with the Chajnantor Plateau, at 5000 m altitude. Along the ALMA road, at 2900 m altitude, is the Operation Support Facility (OSF), from where ALMA operations will be coordinated once the construction ends at the Array Operations Site (AOS), on the Chajantor Plateau. The road has been built with the minimum slope possible and no inclination on the curves, following the technical specifications required by the ALMA antenna transporters.