The Ministry of Transport and Public Works (MTOP) of Uruguay announced a new public-private participation initiative.
This "Circuit 5 Roadway Corridor Project" covers construction, rehabilitation, maintenance and financing of the roadway circuit comprising Route No. 14 (from Route No. 6 to the Velázquez junction) and Route 15 (from the Veláquez junction to Lazcano). The engineer Susan García is MTOP's point person for this project.
Circuit 5 is the fifth roadway initiative launched by MTOP since November 2015, when the Circuit 1 initiative was announced.
Studies are now beginning for the prior assessments required under Law 18,786 (eligibility-prefeasibility or feasibility and assessment document) by the Office of Planning and Budget and the Ministry of Economy and Finance. After that, the biding conditions and draft agreement will be prepared in order to make the call for bids. While the legally established timeframes are longer, for the majority of the previous circuits the calls for bids were made not more than two and a half months following announcement of the public initiative, and in this case the launch is expected to take place in April or May.
As for the other circuits, the first is the only one with provisional award to the consortium Ciemsa, Traxpalco S.A. (Tracoviax) y Hernández y González S.A. (H&G). The second, which had four bidders, is at the final evaluation stage at the Court of Accounts. In the case of the third, also with four bidders, no decision has been made yet on envelope 1. The fourth is still at the preliminary stage of preparation of the bidding conditions and draft contract. Circuit six, not yet official, is expected to be called during the second half of 2017.
The PPP system is not limited to highways and is also being used for different infrastructure projects, including education and railway initiatives. For education projects, the first tender for design, financing, construction and operation of 44 kindergartens and 15 child and family care centers (CAIF) has been announced. The second phase is expected to be launched in March or April, and the third during the second half of this year.
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