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

  • Data helps Ohio DoT get grant money
    January 25, 2022
    Ohio Department of Transportation turned to StreetLight Data when it needed to finalise grant money for a key infrastructure link. David Crawford sees how metrics brought in the cash…
  • Consultant sought for Honduras highway concessions
    September 3, 2014
    The US government's Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is seeking a consultant to advise the Honduran government on the development of highway concessions. The winning bidder will be required to assist the country's infrastructure and public services ministry and the superintendant of public-private partnerships to manage road concessions, including a logistical corridor, a tourism corridor and the Lenca corridor, according to a tender notice published on the UN Development Business website.
  • Russia looks to ITS to curb congestion and reduce accidents
    May 7, 2015
    Major ITS installations are planned as the Russian capital Moscow grapples with extensive traffic problems. At the end of 2014, Russia’s first complex intelligent transport system (ITS) started easing traffic problems in and around the capital Moscow, following the implementation of the plans by the federal government and the city’s authorities.
  • Reversible express lanes and open road tolling combat congestion
    March 2, 2012
    Teri England, Diamond Consulting Services, details the construction of construction of a world first - reversible express lanes with cashless multi-lane ORT - on the Tampa Hillsborough Expressway