Colombia's national infrastructure agency ANI has awarded the Girardot-Puerto Salgar highway concession to the consortium formed by Mario Alberto Huertas Cotes and Constructora MECO SA Sucursal Colombia.

The consortium is formed by Mario Alberto Huertas C. (75%) and Constructora Meco S.A. (25 %). The team beat out competition from Infraestructura Vial Puerto Salgar which is formed by Controladora de Operaciones de Infraestructura S.A. de CV (45 %), Alca Ingeniería S.A.S. (5 %), Latinoamericana de Construcciones S.A (10 %), Carlos Alberto Solarte Solarte (15%), CASS SA (15%) and Estyma SA (10%).

The preferred bidder offered a total investment of US$556.7 million. Constructions works are scheduled to be finished in four years.

The project, which was the first to receive bids under its fourth generation (4G) concession program, includes the design, rehabilitation, duplication, financing, operation and maintenance of the Honda - Puerto Salgar - Girardot corridor.

The project will have a total length of 194 km along the areas of Tolima, Caldas and Cundinamarca in Colombia:

• 22 km of new road construction in dual carriageway (including the new bridge between Girardot and Flanders),
• rehabilitation of 33 km of roads,
• upgrading of 135 km road and
• 4 km belong to the new bridge between La Dorada and Puerto Salgar.

The 4G highway contracts program covers 47 projects worth US$25 billion over eight years.

ANI recently announced that it received two bids for the Pacific Connection highway concession 3 (Autopistas de la Prosperidad), two bids for Pacific Connection highway concession 1, three bids for the Cartagena - Barranquilla corridor concession and four bids for the East Cundinamarca bypass concession project.

On 22 May 2014, ANI awarded the Pacific Connection highway concession 2 to a consortium led by Grupo Odinsa S.A. after being the sole bidder for the project.