Colombia's National Infrastructure Agency (ANI) has announced that a consortium composed of Iridium Concesiones (40 %) and Episol SAS (60 %) won Pacific Connection highway concession 1 (Autopistas de la Prosperidad).

Iridium Concesiones de Infraestructuras and Episol are the infrastructure development arms of ACS Group (Spain) and Corficolombiana (Colombia).

The consortium won the tender process beating competition from a consortium composed by Carlos Alberto Solarte Solarte, Cass Constructores y Compañía, Controladora de Operaciones de Infraestructura S.A de C.V, Alca Ingenieria S.A.S and Latinoamericana de Construcciones S.A.

The project includes the stretch Ancón Sur - Camilo Cé - Bolombolo in the region of Antioquia.

The amount requested from the government by the winning bidder is P1.03 billion (US$542 million), which represents savings of 13 % compared to the amount estimated by the government. The second bidder requested an amount of P1.12 billion (US$590 million).

The project involves a total investment of P1.79 billion (US$943 million) and includes the construction of a dual carriageway with a length of 31Km and the upgrade and maintenance of the current road. The project also includes construction of 42 bridges and two tunnels (5.7Km in total).

The project is part of the nine concessions that comprise Autopistas para la Prosperidad highway project. Total investments will exceed 13 trillion pesos (US$7.1 billion) and will feature contributions from the national government through the ANI, the Government of Antioquia and the Government of Medellín.

This award represents the third project awarded under Colombia's 4G Concessions Program.

A couple of days ago, ANI awarded the Girardot-Puerto Salgar highway concession to the consortium formed by Mario Alberto Huertas Cotes and Constructora MECO SA Sucursal Colombia.