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

  • Tolling is a ‘powerful tool to maintain and manage an infrastructure network’
    August 15, 2017
    Officials have recently moved to scrap tolls on several highways for the first time in 40 years, bucking a national trend toward more tolls on mostly urban roadways to shift the costs of transportation to those who use the roads, writes Associated Press. A regional authority voted this week to eliminate tolls on the Cesar Chavez Border Highway in El Paso. On the same day, Dallas city council rejected plans to build a toll road along the Trinity River. The council's action appears to be the death knell for a
  • Indra to renew Colombia toll systems
    March 2, 2016
    Concesionaria del Desarrollo Vial de la Sabana (DEVISAB) has awarded Indra a contract valued at US$2.3 million to renovate the technology used at three toll plazas and a control centre on a roadway linking the municipalities of Chia, Mosquera, Girardot and Soacha. The project is scheduled to be completed in 14 months. Indra will deploy toll and electronic toll systems on 21 collection lanes at the toll plazas of Tebaida, Mondoñedo and the Soacha municipality access lane, along a 159-kilometre stretch of
  • President to unveil infrastructure funding initiative
    July 21, 2014
    President Obama is to unveil a new federal initiative to help cities and states find private financing for transportation infrastructure. The announcement comes as the White House looks to increase pressure on Congress, which this week is debating a short-term fix to the rapidly depleting highway trust fund that underwrites road and mass transit construction. Under the plan to be unveiled by Obama, the Department of Transportation will open a new investment centre designed to serve as a ‘one-stop sho
  • Europe’s EasyWay project accommodates political requirements
    May 29, 2013
    The EasyWay project has evolved to take account of political developments at the European level. By Jason Barnes The European Union’s (EU’s) EasyWay ITS deployment project has its roots in the ambitions of former European Commission President Jacques Delors with regard to truly international networks for energy, information and for transport. Definition of what became known as the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) began back in 1994 with seven working groups. They produced an R&D and policy framework