Panama to launch tender for US$50mn highway upgrade this month

Panama is preparing to tender a US$50mn project to upgrade the highway in Veraguas province in the west of the country, authorities have announced. 

This project involves works on 57km of the roads between San Francisco and Santa Fe, and a branch road to Calobre.

The capex of the works has been put at US$50mn and they have been included in a program to rehabilitate more than 2,000km of highways and roads across the country. 

The minister of public works, Rafael Sabonge, held a meeting last week with a civilian organization that has been calling for the project to be carried out, where he announced that the tender will be published on procurement site Panamacompra by the end of this month. 

The upgrades will be divided into two stages, the first comprising the road from San Francisco to Calobre, and the second from Santa Fe to the limits of Santiago, where the road links to the Pan-American highway.

They include expanding the roadways, and making repairs and improvements to bridges, among others.

According to news outlet Panamá America, the civilian organization has been demanding these works for more than 30 years due to the poor state of the highway. 

In 2021, local authorities announced the beginning of pre-construction studies to pave the way for the construction tender.