Skip to main content

Colombia approves highway plan funding

Colombia has approved US$13.4 billion in funding for nine highway projects, part of a master plan to revamp and expand Latin America's fourth largest road network. All nine projects are part of the Autopistas para la Prosperidad program, which involves the construction of some 838 kilometres of two-lane highways, 63 kilometres of bridges and 90 kilometres of tunnels. The government also decided to finance directly the construction of Toyo tunnel, ruling out the concession framework for that project.
March 10, 2014 Read time: 2 mins

Colombia has approved US$13.4 billion in funding for nine highway projects, part of a master plan to revamp and expand Latin America's fourth largest road network.

All nine projects are part of the Autopistas para la Prosperidad program, which involves the construction of some 838 kilometres of two-lane highways, 63 kilometres of bridges and 90 kilometres of tunnels.

The government also decided to finance directly the construction of Toyo tunnel, ruling out the concession framework for that project.

"Nine projects have been approved, eight of them will be under a public-private partnership and one will be entirely financed by the state," president Juan Manuel Santos said in a public speech in western Antioquia department.

Conexión Norte, a US$500 million, 146 kilometre highway in north-west Colombia is scheduled to be awarded in the first quarter. In the second quarter, national infrastructure agency ANI will name the winners in the tenders for Conexión Pacífico 1, Río Magdalena 2 and Conexión Pacífico 3, among other projects, for more than US$2.5 billion.

Río Magdalena 1, Autopista al Mar 1 and Autopista al Mar 2 are planned to be awarded in the third quarter for US$2.66 billion.

Colombia plans to award at least 25 highway projects in 2014 under a US$21 billion plan dubbed 4G. 

Related Content

  • Strabag wins Polish bypass contract
    September 11, 2014
    A consortium of Strabag and its subsidiary Heilit and Woerner has been awarded a US$51.7 million design-and-build contract for a 7.6 kilometre bypass around the city of Kościerzyna in northern Poland. The project comprises the construction of three traffic lanes with one additional lane that can be adapted for traffic if needed. It also includes nine civil engineering structures, including bridges and a railway overpass; environmental protection measures such as noise barriers and wildlife crossings; a
  • Norway to build cycle highways
    March 8, 2016
    Norway is proposing to spend US$923 million and build ten dual-lane bicycle pathways that would link the country's nine largest cities and extend to their suburbs, allowing longer-distance cyclists to travel with a speed and safety hitherto impossible. The effort is part of the country's National Transit Plan, which seeks to reduce emissions from vehicular traffic. Challenges, however, include dark winters, steep mountains and the small number of Norwegians who use cycles. According to CityLab, the ef
  • IBTTA statement on State of the Union Address
    January 21, 2015
    Executive director and CEO of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA), Patrick D. Jones, has made a statement on the State of the Union Address, saying: “In his State of the Union Address tonight, President Obama said that Republicans and Democrats must work together to make critical repairs and improvements to our long-neglected transportation infrastructure. As the economy starts back on the right track, Congress can rescue this vital part of our economic engine from further d
  • Legalities of in-vehicle systems and cooperative infrastructures
    February 1, 2012
    Paul Laurenza of Dykema Gossett PLLC discusses the paths which lawmakers may go down on the route to making in-vehicle systems and cooperative infrastructures a reality. The question of whether or not to mandate in-vehicle systems for safety and other applications is a vexed one. There is a presumption on some parts that going down the road of forcing systems' fitment is somehow too domineering or restricting. Others would argue that it is the only realistic way of ensuring that systems achieve widespread d