The President of Colombia, Iván Duque, inaugurated yesterday the first of four road 4G projects that Sacyr develops in Colombia: Puerta de Hierro – Palmar de Varela – Cruz del Viso.
After the construction phase, Concesionaria Vial Montes de María, a 100%-owned Sacyr Concesiones subsidiary company, is in charge of operating and maintaining this corridor’s entire length of 198 kilometers, which connects the Sucre, Atlántico, and Bolívar departments with Colombia’s inland.
This project improves the quality of life of close to 320,000 residents of the infrastructure’s area of influence.
With a total investment of 177 million euros (1.24 billion Colombian pesos), and the creation of more than 5,500 direct jobs during its execution, construction works consisted of improving 164 km of road, rehabilitating 2 km, and building a 5.2-km highway exit, as well as installing Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) that allow for better communication to the road’s users.
Leopoldo Pellón, Sacyr group’s corporate manager in Colombia, stressed that “successfully culminating construction and initiating the operation stage of our first P3 highway in Colombia reaffirms Sacyr’s commitment to the country’s infrastructure development. The project was executed with high social and environmental commitment, which allowed refinancing it through the first social bond issuance tied to an infrastructure project in Latin America, for 209 million dollars”.
The Concession society will persevere in its commitment to the region, executing operation and maintenance activities on the road corridor and ensuring continuity of its social and environmental responsibility programs until 2040.
General information about the project:
- The total width of the road is 11.3 meters (two lanes of 3.65 m and a 2-m berm on each side of the road).
- The Project is divided into three sections called Unidades Funcionales (Functional Units), two of which were already open to users:
- UF 3 (Carreto – Palmar de Varela): in operation since June 2020.
- UF 2 (El Carmen de Bolívar – Carreto – Cruz del Viso): in operation since October 2020.
- UF 1 (Puerta de Hierro – El Carmen de Bolívar y Variante El Carmen de Bolívar): in operation since May 2021.
- Construction of four level crossings, one cloverleaf interchange, ten pedestrian bridges, the Centro de Control de Operaciones (CCO) (Operation Control Center), two service areas and two weighing areas.
