Colombia to resume work on US$490mn highway concession

By ANI

This is a machine translation of the original press release issued in Spanish.

The National Infrastructure Agency (ANI) and the Concesión Vial de los Llanos SAS, managed to make viable the private initiative project Malla Vial del Meta, after the signing of Otrosí No. 10 to Concession Contract 004 of 2015.

Through these agreements, as a result of the arduous and constant work tables and the support of the participatory fiscal control strategy "Compromiso Colombia" of the Comptroller General of the Republic, the conditions were defined to achieve the execution of this important project, fundamental for the economy and development of the Eastern Plains.

“With this other, we managed to reactivate this project of vital importance for the well-being of all the inhabitants of the Colombian Orinoquía, because we know that the owners of the projects are the citizens and the regions; and to make the country move more and better is our main objective,” stated the Minister of Transport, Angela María Orozco.

The fourth generation project for the Meta Road Network includes the Granada – Villavicencio and Villavicencio – Puerto López – Puerto Gaitán corridors. Regarding the Villavicencio road ring, the intersection of Fundadores will be improved, and it will continue with the construction of a new road that will connect it with the Villavicencio-Yopal 4G corridor.

In total, these sections include 267.5 kilometers of road that are currently in the operation and maintenance phase, of which 7.5km of new road construction between the Catama intersection and Puente Amarillo; 257km of rehabilitation; 3km of improvement and 26km of second road (10.6km between Acacias and La Cuncia, 9km between La Cuncia and Ciudad Porfia and 6.2km between the Ocoa river and access to the Apiay Military Base).

The works that commit resources for $1.5 trillion pesos, will benefit the inhabitants of the municipalities of Villavicencio, Acacías, Guamal, San Martín, Granada, Puerto López and Puerto Gaitán, among others.

The project will reduce in more than 25 minutes the travel time of the tractor-trucks that cross the city of Villavicencio, the vehicle operating costs and the travel times by increasing the speed of circulation and in total it will generate 1,800 jobs.

Prioritized sections

Among the priority sections to start activities is the one located near the Guayuriba River in the corridor that connects Villavicencio with Acacías, and which has been affected by floods and floods.

The intervention of a 2.75 km road pair between La Cuncia and the Guayuriba River is part of Functional Unit 2 and will provide a definitive solution to the sector in terms of landslides. The investment will be approximately 35,000 billion, includes property, environmental, social and civil works. It will generate about 100 direct jobs and its execution time will be 18 months.

About the project

The private initiative Malla Vial del Meta is one of the 29 projects that make up the fourth generation of road concessions (4G). Concession Contract No. 004 of 2015 was signed between the National Infrastructure Agency and the Concesión Vial de los Llanos SAS on May 5, 2015.

This project was in the pre-construction phase since 2016 while it was being resolved in an arbitration court that will determine the viability of the project due to the effects of the change in macroeconomic variables, especially due to the fall in the price of oil and its consequences in the project traffic.

Thus, on February 28, 2019, the Arbitral Tribunal issued an award in which it ordered the parties to renegotiate the terms of the contract and seek settlement formulas that allow the fulfillment of its object. Then, from that date, the National Government, headed by the National Infrastructure Agency, began the negotiation tables with the concessionaire for the reactivation of the project that culminate today with the signing of the other number 10 to the Concession Contract.