Colombia begins tender to find operator for Cruce de la Cordillera Central road corridor

Colombia's highway authority Invías opened the tender process to contract a company to take charge of the operation and maintenance of the Cruce de la Cordillera Central road corridor for two years.

The pre-tender documents have been published on the website of the Secop public procurement system. The final tender documents will be issued on August 8, according to Invías' technical and structuring director, Mauricio Céspedes Solano.

“With this new public tender, we are guaranteeing the integrity and safety of Colombians who travel between the center of the country and the southwest, mainly those who travel to the departments of Tolima, Quindío and Valle del Cauca,” added Solano.

The corridor, which connects Quindío and Tolima departments, has 25 tunnels, 31 viaducts, three traffic interchanges and 30km of divided highway.

The Cruce de la Cordillera road includes the La Línea tunnel, which stretches for 43km from Cajamarca to Calarcá and 33km from Calarcá to Cajamarca. According to information from Invías, the operator will have to maintain 8.6km of the tunnel.

Around 660,000 vehicles used the corridor during the first half of the year.

The 2.9tn-peso (currently US$717mn) corridor was opened in 2021 to reduce travel times between capital Bogotá and the port city of Buenaventura, as well as improving trade and tourist traffic to and from the coffee-producing regions of the southwest.