Invías, Colombia’s national highways authority, has announced that it is to issue a third tender for the La Línea road tunnel following the collapse of the second tender process at the end of February. The second tender, like the first in November 2001, attracted no bids, given the impossibility of finding sufficient insurance coverage for the fixed 14-year maintenance period insisted on in the tender conditions.
The Coltúneles consortium, of Colombian construction companies Conconcreto, Hermanos Olarte and Conciviles, the French led Bouygues with local firms Construcciones El Cóndor and Mario Huertas and Spain’s Ferrovial group are expected to bid for the new tender after having shown interest in previous requests.
The tender, issued on April 12, will contain vital differences to its predecessors. According to transport minister Gustavo Canal, the maintenance package will no longer form part of the overall contract bringing down the price from US$270m to around US$233m; the level of insurance guarantees will also be reduced.
Carlos Felipe Albán, who heads the French bid, explained that the insurance and re-insurance markets remain highly inflexible with regard to Colombian infrastructure projects post-September 11th. He believes that they can be persuaded to back the project, but that time will be needed to adapt the overall project to their risk requirements. Only about 20 re-insurance companies are nowadays willing to even consider Colombia, with the La Línea tunnel perceived as being especially vulnerable to future terrorist attack and both technically difficult and extremely expensive to build.
