Skip to main content

São Paulo court stalls undersea tunnel

São Paulo state court TCE-SP has ordered a halt to the tender of São Paulo state's US$732 million project to build an underwater tunnel between the coastal cities of Santos and Guarujá. The project calls for the construction and operation of a 900 metre, six-lane submersed tunnel between Brazil's coastal cities of Santos and Guarujá. To be submerged at a depth of 21 metres, the tunnel would give the Santos port navigation channel a draft of 17 metres. Construction was scheduled to start in 2014 and c
February 3, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
São Paulo state court TCE-SP has ordered a halt to the tender of São Paulo state's US$732 million project to build an underwater tunnel between the coastal cities of Santos and Guarujá.

The project calls for the construction and operation of a 900 metre, six-lane submersed tunnel between Brazil's coastal cities of Santos and Guarujá. To be submerged at a depth of 21 metres, the tunnel would give the Santos port navigation channel a draft of 17 metres.

Construction was scheduled to start in 2014 and completed by2017.

The move responded to claims by bidding companies that there were a number of inconsistencies in the tender rules and that the time provided by state highway company

5947 Dersa, in charge of the tender process, was insufficient for proposals to be drawn up, according to local reports. Dersa now has five days to respond to the uncertainties and submit a copy of the bidding rules for TCE-SP analysis.

The tunnel is expected to take 44 months to build once the contract is awarded, São Paulo governor Geraldo Alckmin has said.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • South African agencies in dispute over road tolls
    June 10, 2014
    The city of Cape Town and South Africa’s roads agency Sanral are again in dispute over the proposed US$936 million N1 and N2 tolling project, with the city saying Sanral is attempting to keep the public in the dark about the costs of tolling. The Western Cape High Court last year put a temporary stop to the project until the finalisation of the city’s review application in which it is asking the court to set aside the decision to declare the N1 and N2 toll roads. Sanral initially withheld what it cons
  • Will interoperability prevent progress?
    January 10, 2014
    David Crawford examines the political and industrial background to the tolling technology debate. Saving the US State of California ‘millions of dollars’ in tolling infrastructure costs by encouraging new technologies is the professed aim of a legislative Bill, SB 242, which is currently moving through the State’s Senate (upper house) process. According to its sponsor, Republican State Senator Mark Wyland, permitting alternatives to the current FasTrak-branded radio-frequency identification (RFID)-based sys
  • Pedestrians still walking a tightrope in US
    August 23, 2024
    Although the Governors Highway Safety Association says annual US pedestrian traffic deaths fell for first time since Covid, they remain above pre-pandemic levels, finds David Arminas
  • Brazilian PPP metro contract signed
    October 22, 2013
    Brazilian highway and metro concessionaire CCR has signed a US$1.85 billion contract for a public-private partnership (PPP) to carry out phase II work on Bahia state capital Salvador's metro system in northeast Brazil. The PPP involves building a total of 33.4 kilometres of metro lines and 19 stations and includes building an extension to the metro's existing 6.6 kilometre line 1 and preparing a project to extend the line some a further 3.6 kilometres.