 Conalza workers were the main construction force at the Nueva Línea photovoltaic solar park. |
Despite the commitment that his high level of responsibility entails, civil engineer Maikel Brito Peña maintains his cordial nature, humility, and willingness to engage in dialogue, traits that help me get closer to him and travel to the domains of the Construction and Assembly Company, Conalza Las Tunas, which he has been managing since August 2023.
His career has been, and continues to be, closely linked to this sector, which is key to the country's economic and social development. He explains: “Since 1998, when I graduated, I started at MICONS, then moved on to other activities at the People's Power Construction Company, as director of Provincial Housing Investments for about six years, and then returned to MICONS again.”
The work on the photovoltaic solar park program, both in progress and in the planning stages, has been, is, and will continue to be intense...
"Right now, they are among the priority projects. Nueva Línea (Delicias, Puerto Padre) is already finished, and the other, located in La Veguita, in the municipality of Las Tunas, we are clearing the land."
So, was Nueva Línea a challenge?
"It was our first experience with a project of this magnitude, and we learned as we went.
But, there are other works of economic and social benefits...
"Yes, of course, among the priorities is also the Main Collector (known as CP-4), in which this year we will extend 511 linear meters of the main collector and around 600 meters of secondary collectors.
"We must also include the construction work on the Southern Ring Road, where in the first months of this year we laid 1,500 tons of hot asphalt to improve traffic on this bypass, and another 200 tons of cold asphalt on streets and avenues of national and local interest. At the same time, work is underway to complete the civil works at the pumping station at the Juan Sáez dam in Jesús Menéndez."
Any other challenges?
“We are also involved in the two major cement investments in Cuba. At the factories in Nuevitas, Camagüey, and Santiago de Cuba. We supply more than 2,000 cubic meters of high-strength concrete every month. Both are of national importance, of tremendous scale, immense, million-dollar projects.”
Why do you emphasize the production of high-strength concrete?
 Continuous workdays are common to ensure concrete production. |
“Because we are leaders in its production and supply for the two cement factories. We have two batching plants, which average more than 2,000 cubic meters of concrete per month. Some months, we reach three thousand, taking into account the construction demands of the projects.”
“We produce concrete for elements that are continuously formed by sliding, and we often spend 15, 18, and even more than 20 days producing and supplying concrete continuously, 24 hours a day, non-stop, organized into three work shifts, each involving 40 or 50 workers.
Last year, for example, we had more than 100 days of uninterrupted work in this production. We worked day and night, organized into three shifts, and delivered all the high-quality concrete that the construction site needed.”
Do you think the construction sector is experiencing a certain revival?
"Yes, quite a lot. We have even grown in terms of sales, efficiency, and wages, because from an average that ranged between four and six thousand pesos, today it is around 17 thousand, all after reversing the adverse situation we had in 2022, when losses amounted to 27 million pesos; we were able to implement Decree 87.
"In 2022, production reached 220 million pesos, but in 2023 it was 260 million, and in 2024 the total was around 360 million, and by the end of May this year, we will exceed 305 million.
“The recovery in production allowed us to clean up our finances and apply Decree 87 and achieve the current salary improvements.”
This achievement is the result of the spirit of its nearly 870 workers, integrated into four base business units directly linked to construction, two service units, and a training school.
