Skip to main content

Colombia to award highway tenders

Colombia is due to award all the tenders for the second phase of the country's US$25 billion 4G highway plan by July this year, according to the country's vice president Germán Vargas Lleras. The next phase of 4G highway concessions will involve ten projects and require a total investment of US$7.96 billion. Offers are due to be received in May. So far five firms have prequalified for the first tender round: Spanish construction firms Sacyr and FCC; Mexico's ICA and Tradeco; and Chinese company Sinohy
January 19, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Colombia is due to award all the tenders for the second phase of the country's US$25 billion 4G highway plan by July this year, according to the country's vice president Germán Vargas Lleras.

The next phase of 4G highway concessions will involve ten projects and require a total investment of US$7.96 billion. Offers are due to be received in May.

So far five firms have prequalified for the first tender round: Spanish construction firms 6074 Sacyr and 5656 FCC; Mexico's 4285 ICA and 4743 Tradeco; and Chinese company Sinohydro.

These groups had pulled out of the first phase of tenders for the billion-dollar highway plan reportedly due to concerns about the tender process and possible risks.

Their return "is a clear sign that the parent companies of these groups began to have more trust in the 4G program after the positive results of the first wave of tenders," Juan Martín Caicedo, president of Colombia's infrastructure chamber, was reported as saying.

The caution expressed in the first round has apparently waned after the government worked to improve the tender process and mitigate risks, Caicedo added.

BTG Pactual's managing director of project finance, Mauricio Gutiérrez, explains that some of the main risks for highway tenders like these include construction conditions, environmental issues, and the need to obtain all the land for the projects. In response, Colombia's government committed to taking on additional costs above a certain level.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Funding shortfall for US Interstate upgrades
    May 11, 2012
    Andrew Bardin Williams investigates tolling on the federal Interstate system as maintenance and upgrade requirements increasingly outpace funding The I-95 corridor through North Carolina is one of the most heavy trafficked interstates in the US, seeing upwards of 46,000 vehicles per day in some stretches-and North Carolina’s Department of Transportation (NCDOT) estimates this number will to rise to 98,000 vehicles per day by 2040. Along with the rest of the federal interstate system, the North Carolina str
  • New riders get onboard the metabustrip
    October 5, 2016
    Bus travel booking is moving into the digital age as David Crawford discovers. A global surge in demand for intercity bus travel is fuelling new initiatives to make it easier for passengers to access information and book via the web by, fo example, using multi-sourced metasearch engines
  • Russia's high speed toll link - aims and opportunities
    July 31, 2012
    Construction of a new toll link between the Russian capital of Moscow and the country's second-largest city, the port of St Petersburg, is due to start in 2012. Here, ITS International takes look at the project to date and the opportunities for foreign companies to get involved. The construction of a new toll link between the Russian capital Moscow and the country's second-largest city St Petersburg has a number of aims. It will lead to the creation of a high-speed vehicular link between the two which will
  • ‘Shining moment of opportunity for tolling’
    May 5, 2021
    Climate change is already affecting tolling operations in many parts of the world. IBTTA’s Bill Cramer explains how the sector can be seen as a proven funding and financing mechanism for surface transportation