- Ferrovial, through a consortium headed by subsidiary Cintra Infraestructuras, has been awarded the contract to design, build, finance, operate and maintain a 152 km concession on the Bucaramanga-Barrancabermeja-Yondó toll road, in Colombia.
- The project represents an estimated total investment of 2.6 trillion Colombian pesos, i.e. around 880 million euro.
- The infrastructure will improve communications between eastern Colombia and the country's main oil-producing regions.
Ferrovial, through a consortium headed by subsidiary Cintra Infraestructuras, has been selected by Colombia's National Infrastructure Agency (ANI) to design, build, finance, operate and maintain approximately 152 kilometres of the Bucaramanga-Barrancabermeja-Yondó (BBY) toll road, which represents an estimated total investment of 2.6 trillion Colombian pesos, i.e. around 880 million euro. The 25-year concession has an option of a four-year extension, to make a total of 29 years. Other consortium members are the Ashmore infrastructure fund in Colombia and Colombian group Colpatria.
Cintra will develop this project, while design and construction will be undertaken by a joint venture headed by Ferrovial Agroman. Cintra will take charge of operation and maintenance. The contract includes refurbishment, resurfacing and new construction to create a corridor approximately 152 kilometres long, 95 of which will have two lanes each way, between Bucaramanga and Barrancabermeja. The road will include two tunnels (5.96 kilometres) and 34 new viaducts and bridges. It will improve traffic conditions in the region, strengthen opportunities for economic development, and boost employment and the local supply chain in eastern Colombia, where the bulk of the country's oil production is located.
The concession is for 25 years from contract signature, with the possibility of a 4-year extension. The concession company will be remunerated via availability payments and explicit tolls. The contract also provides for toll revenues to be guaranteed by the Administration.
This project marks Cintra's return to the toll road business in Latin America, having managed assets in Colombia and Chile in the 1990s and 2000s. Cintra is one of the world’s leading private sector developers of transportation infrastructure in terms of the number of projects and the volume of investment. It currently manages over 2,000 kilometres of roads in 26 concessions in Canada, the US and Europe. Cintra is the largest shareholder in the 407 ETR concessionaire, in Ontario, Canada, with a stake of 43.23%.
Ferrovial currently operates in Colombia via its construction subsidiary, Ferrovial Agroman, which has built projects there such as the tunnels for the Ituango hydroelectric plant and a 4.1 kilometre stretch of toll road linking Highway 80 in Medellín to the Pacific road.
