Under the hammer: Chile plans public work tenders worth over US$700mn

Chile’s public works ministry (MOP) plans to tender 478 public work contracts worth around 702bn pesos (US$713mn) in April and May.

For the year, MOP's plan is to auction contracts worth 2.26tn pesos, of which 63% correspond to works on non-concession roads. 

According to the ministry’s planning office (DIRPLAN), the largest projects that will go under the hammer this month and next are the following.

Route C-13 improvement. Route 5 - Diego de Almagro stretch (54.9bn pesos): Scheduled to be tendered in May. Works involve repaving a 51.1km stretch of Route C-13 in Atacama region. The stretch begins at the intersection with Route 5 in the municipality of Diego de Almagro, according to documents from the country’s integrated projects bank database (BIP).

Route F-30 widening. Quintero access stretch (49.3bn pesos): Tender planned for May. It involves widening a 3.6km access road in Quintero municipality (Valparaíso region) and adding links to Routes F-30 and the Puchuncaví-La Greda bypass. 

Route 15-CH improvement. Salto Usmagama- Alto Chusmiza stretch (21bn pesos): MOP plans to tender this contract next month. It entails the rehabilitation of 16.5km between the localities of Usmagama and Alto Chumiza in Tarapacá region. The route leads to the Colchane pass on the border with Bolivia. 

Valparaíso Teletón rehabilitation center reconstruction (16bn pesos): Tender scheduled for May. Works consist of building a new 5,096m2 rehabilitation facility for the Teletón foundation in Valparaíso region’s namesake capital. The building will have five floors, two of which will be underground. This represents an 80% increase from the current Valparaíso center, which has been deemed insufficient to treat the 3,917 patients it receives annually.

The April-May schedule also includes consultancies and studies for larger projects.

Talca penitentiary. Consultancy for work progress inspection (4.05bn pesos): Contract is expected to be tendered this month, while the process to auction the concession is underway.

Punilla reservoir. Work progress inspection consultancy (3.06bn pesos): Tender scheduled for April, and the auction process for the reservoir’s concession is underway.

The concessions office also plans to tender three studies for the planned Zapallar reservoir (US$332mn). One of these, which is scheduled to be auctioned this month, has a 250mn-peso reference budget and involves an appraisal of the reservoir’s flood area.

The other two are set to be tendered in May and involve detail engineering for the reservoir’s canal system (700mn pesos) and landscape designs (300mn pesos).

The concession tender for the reservoir has not been launched yet, but is planned for this year.