A Colombian-Spanish-Mexican consortium has won the bid to build La
Linea tunnel, a perforation of the central Andean range in west-central
Colombia, the longest one in the country, officials announced Saturday.
The company, the Union Temporal Segundo Centenario, which besides
winning the bid for the construction and operation of the La Linea
Tunnel, will also build a two-lane road between the towns of Calarca and
Cajamarca, Transport Minister Andres Uriel Gallego announced.
The
consortium comprises the companies Condux of Mexico, Herreña Fronpeca
of Spain, and the Colombian firms Carlos Collins Construction; Alvarez
and Collins; Montarcarlos Road Development; Tunnels of Colombia;
Construirte; Gayco; Tecniciviles; H & H Architecture and Miguel
Camilo Castillo Huertas.
The construction project, 8.8 kilometers (5 1/2 miles) long together with the two-lane road, should be finished by 2013.
The
project for the La Linea tunnel has a budget of 703 billion pesos (more
than $300 million), and the bidding drew companies from Colombia, South
Korea, China, Spain, Italy, Mexico and Brazil.
The winning consortium was announced before dawn Saturday after a of long day of more than 15 hours of public analysis.
The
project, one of the most ambitious in the country, will cut costs for
traveling between the central part of Colombia and the west.
The
construction will connect Buenaventura, the country’s main port on the
Pacific coast, with the interior of the country, the eastern llanos,
western Venezuela and the Orinoco basin.