Hidroituango Contractors Absolved From Disastrous Tunnel Collapse
An international arbitration tribunal announced December 10 that the three main contractors at the US$5 billion, 2.4-gigawatt “Hidroituango” hydroelectric dam here in Antioquia were not responsable for the 2018 collapse of a diversión tunnel that ultimately delayed power output by nearly four years and added roughly US$1 billion to project costs.
The Colombian Chamber of Infrastructure, Antioquia Section (CCI-Antioquia) immediately hailed the decision and denounced former Medellin Mayor Daniel Quintero for falsely accusing the contractors of causing the tunnel collapse.
“Today, the Arbitration panel decision that would define the liability of the CCC-Ituango consortium and its members did justice,” according to CCI-Antioquia.
“In 2021, the consortium made up of [Medellin-based construction giants] Conconcreto, Camargo Correa and Coninsa Ramon H, filed an arbitration claim against EPM [the Medellin public utility and part-owner of the Hidroituango project], which at that time operated under the administration of [former Medellin Mayor} Daniel Quintero.
“Much of the period of said [Quintero] administration was dedicated to trying to hold the CCC Ituango Consortium responsible for the contingency that occurred in 2018 following the collapse of the Auxiliary Diversion Gallery (GAD).
“Today, the false accusations made by the previous administration against well-known companies in our region and our country, with years of experience in the practice of engineering, firms that have always been characterized by their technical rigor in the practice of the profession, were dismissed in their entirety due to lack of foundation.
“Daniel Quintero, who, due to media zeal, his irresponsibility and that of his closest collaborators, ends up today leading EPM to have to pay an enormous amount of money in compensation, money from all Antioquians that will increase even more due to the enormous waste of the previous administration,” according to CCI-Antioquia.
The actual amount of compensation that must be paid to the contractors by Medellin’s city-owned EPM has yet to be determined, but it’s a bad sign for the city, which gets nearly 25% of its annual revenues from EPM.
The latest arbitration panel ruling follows a separate ruling last year (see Medellin Herald December 8, 2023) finding that EPM must pay US$196 million in tunnel-collapse damages to the other major owner of Hidroituango: the departmental government of Antioquia.
While private insurance has covered most of the losses resulting from the tunnel collapse, the Antioquia government still had been counting upon hefty revenues from electric power sales from Hidroituango – without which Antioquia’s finances have suffered.
More than three years ago, EPM contracted Finland-based hydroelectric-project engineering consultant Pöyry to investigate the cause of the tunnel collapse (see Medellin Herald January 23, 2022).
The Pöyry report — initially kept secret by EPM but brought to light by investigative journalists – not only failed to support conspiracy narratives pushed by former Mayor Quintero (who chaired EPM’s Board of Directors at the time) but also uncovered previously unknown, dangerous geological faults in and around the Hidroituango project.
Those geological faults ultimately triggered collapse of the diversion tunnel — setting back final completion of Hidrotuango to 2027, instead of an intially planned late-2022 or early-2023.
