Toyo Tunnel Connection Project Announces 2 Contract Awards
Colombia’s highway agency Invias announced March 30 that it awarded two contracts for road and bridge works that will join with the under-construction “Toyo” tunnel connecting Medellin westward to new and existing Atlantic ports via the “Mar 1” and “Mar 2” highways.
Under the deal, Medellin-based highway construction giant Construcciones El Condor won a COP$418 billion (US$119 million) contract for road-and-bridge work west of Santa Fe de Antioquia, while “Consortium Vías Colombia 061” won a related COP$389.9 billion (US$104 million) contract for road work connecting to the “Toyo” tunnel opening near Cañasgordas, Antioquia, according to Invias.
Total works include 11 tunnels, 13 bridges, four “false tunnels” and 12.5 kilometers of new roads on a project that stretches 19.4 kilometers in length.
Invias director Juan Esteban Gil Chavarría added that construction will begin between May and June 2021.
In total, 13 engineering contractors had bid on the project, according to Invias.
Eventually, this project also will include installation of electromechanical equipment inside the 9.7-kilometers-long “Toyo” tunnel (also known as “Tunel Guillermo Gaviria Echeverri,” honoring the father of a former Antioquia governor who was kidnapped and murdered by the narco-communist FARC army). The new tunnel — longest in all South America — will tie-together the under-construction “Mar 1” and “Mar 2” highways, drastically cutting freight-traffic-times between Medellin and the Atlantic ocean.
Including highway, bridge and tunnel work for the new connection to the main “Toyo” tunnel, Invias funding will total COP$1.4 trillion (US$375 million), according to the agency.
