Webuild S.p.A., an Italian infrastructure company, has secured a US$147 million award in an international arbitration case against Argentina concerning the Rosario–Victoria highway link project which also includes a bridge spanning over 600 meters.

The Argentine project, completed in 2004, had its concession revoked in 2014. The dispute was adjudicated by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), a World Bank institution that handles conflicts between states and foreign investors under bilateral investment treaties. The dispute originated from a 25-year concession agreement established in 1998. However, the project encountered major setbacks, such as payment delays and the collapse of a funding deal with the Inter-American Development Bank. Additionally, a law that ended the peg between the Argentine peso and the US dollar led to the conversion of dollar-denominated public contracts into pesos and imposed a freeze on toll rates—developments that critically undermined the concession’s financial viability. 

The arbitration tribunal consequently ordered Argentina to pay compensation after an initial 2023 ruling in Webuild’s favor and a later appeal by the country. The court found that Argentina had failed to reestablish the contract’s economic equilibrium following the 2001 financial crisis—an omission that breached Argentine law, the concession agreement, and the Bilateral Investment Treaty between Italy and Argentina.

The project involved the construction and concession of a road link, approximately 60 km in total length, between the cities of Rosario (Santa Fé Province) and Victoria (Entre Ríos Province), crossing the Paraná River. A key component of the project is the cable-stayed bridge, measuring 608 m in length, with a central span of 350 m and two side spans of 129 m.