Spotlight: 2 major CentAm transport infra projects

Guatemala’s congress has approved the country’s first public-private partnership (PPP), a toll highway, this year, while work started on a binational bridge that is set to become El Salvador's largest. 

Both projects demand investments of nearly US$113mn.

Guatemala’s first PPP

Congress approved on November 24 the 25-year PPP contract for the rehabilitation and operation of the Escuintla-Puerto Quetzal toll highway, three years after investment promotion agency Anadie submitted the country’s first PPP for approval. 

The contract entails upgrading, operating and maintaining a 41.2km section of highway CA-9 Sur. It was awarded in July 2018 to Consorcio Autopistas de Guatemala, comprising Mexican construction firm Marhnos and Guatemala's Precon. 

It requires a US$80mn investment, which will be provided by the consortium, and is recovered via the collection of tolls.

“This is the only investment project in road infrastructure for the next two years capable of generating around 1,700 jobs in its construction phase and 400 in the operation phase. It is estimated that the state of Guatemala will receive 1.1bn quetzales in canon during the 25 years of the contract, while the highway is always owned by the state,” Anadie said in a statement. 

In Guatemala, all PPP projects must be passed by the legislative branch, which is why construction on several projects that are already awarded has still not started. 

Anadie has introduced last year at least six other PPPs that, along with the Escuintla-Puerto Quetzal highway, total 12bn quetzales (US$1.5bn), also to counter the economic fallout from the pandemic. 

Also read: Guatemala construction chamber expects 2021 to be a record year

El Salvador binational bridge

At the end of November, construction started on the 265m, US$32.6mn General Manuel José Arce binational bridge across the Paz river that links La Hachadura locality in El Salvador and Pedro de Alvarado city in Guatemala. 

The four-lane bridge also entails “a section of incorporation in El Salvador and the improvement of national route AHU25S, among other interventions,” the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (Cabei), which helped finance the project, said in a statement. 

El Salvador’s public works ministry (MOP) said its part of the project entails 160m, in addition to the construction of a 1.4km highway to improve connectivity with Guatemala. 

Most of El Salvador’s exports to Guatemala will cross this bridge, President Nayid Bukele said at the inauguration of works, adding that it will be the longest bridge ever built in the country. 

MOP announced in November 2020 that it launched a tender for the bridge. On November 2, 2021, it disclosed that it awarded the contract to an unnamed winner. 

Pictured: Rendering of General Manuel José Arce binational bridge/Credit: Gobierno de El Salvador