Sacyr advances design of US$460mn Chilean highway

Spanish construction firm Sacyr is working on the designs for the widening of a 469km section of Chile's main highway, route 5. The project demands an investment of US$460mn and is expected to be tendered in 2020, daily El Mercurio de Antofagasta reported.

First submitted as a private initiative by Chilean consulting firm GOCgroup in 2014, the project was declared of public interest during that same year, according to public works ministry (MOP) documents. But ownership rights passed to Sacyr in October 2016, which has been developing the designs since then. They are now expected to be completed by late 2019.

The head of Sacyr Concesiones Chile, Domingo Jiménez, told El Mercurio de Antofagasta that the firm is working alongside the MOP to speed up the project.

"I understand that the public works minister (Juan Andrés Fontaine) has announced it and that it is in the government program of President Sebastián Piñera. I feel that the ministry is supporting the project and we are working on a public-private alliance to try to complete on the agreed deadlines," Jiménez said.

According to the MOP's website, works include widening a 469km section of route 5 between the city of Antofagasta (Antofagasta region) and Caldera municipality in neighboring Atacama region into a four-lane highway. The concession would be in place for 35 years.

The highway would also link with the Caldera-Vallenar highway concession, which Sacyr holds until 2044.