​​​​​​​​​Gianfranco Perri

consultant engineer/scrittore giornalista "amateur"

Gianfranco Perri was born in Brindisi, Italy (1951). He graduated cum Laude as a Doctor in Mining Engineering at the Politecnico di Torino, Italy (1974).

He was professor of Geomechanics at the Politecnico di Torino  (1974-75) and professor of Geotechnical Engineering and Rocks Mechanics at the Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral in Guayaquil  (1975-78), in Ecuador.

Since 1978 he has been the Tunnels and Slopes Design professor at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, in Caracas, where he also was Chief of the Mining Engineering Department.

During 1991 and 1992 Gianfranco Perri was President of the Sociedad Venezolana de Mecánica de Suelos e Ingeniería de Fundaciones, currently Sociedad Venezolana de Geotecnia. He is the current Secretary of the Sociedad Venezolana de Obras Subterráneas (SOCVENOS), member of the International Tunneling Association.

Gianfranco Perri is author of almost a hundred geomechanic papers and has developed a wide range of activities in different engineering areas: Rock and Soil Mechanics; Foundation Engineering; Earth Movement Works and, especially, tunneling.

Among his recent works, in Venezuela he has been the designer for the the Metro Caracas Line 3 - Metro Los Teques and Metro Valencia tunnels and also the designer for the Caracas-Cua rail road tunnels, the road tunnels in Valencia to connect San Diego with Naguanagua and in Caracas the Circonvalaciòn Sur highway tunnels.

Currently, Gianfranco Perri is the tunnels designer of San Juan-San Fernando and Puerto Cabello-La Encrucijada rail road lines. He is also responsible for the geotechnical civil works for all the approximately 500 railroad kilometers lines under construction in Venezuela.


In South America Gianfranco Perri has designed many important hydraulic tunnels. For example, recently: in Argentina the Arroyo Maldonado Buenos Aires project, in Chile the Chacayes and Nido Aguila hydropower projects, in Venezuela the Tucutunemo project, in Costa Rica the Encanto and Negros hydropower projects, in Guatemala the Las Vacas proyect, in Honduras the Arenal hydropower proyect.