Brazil's national ground transport agency ANTT has approved the award of the concession of federal highway BR-153/TO/GO running through the states of Tocantins and Goiás to the local firm Galvão Engenharia.

The firm, which offered to charge tolls of R$4,979 per 100km, 45.99% less than the maximum toll proposed by the government, beat out competition from the consortium Norte-Sul, formed by Ecorodovias, Queiroz Galvão and Coimex (offered 21.49% discount), and the firm Triunfo Participações e Investimentos  (offered 0.99% discount).

The concession contract will have a period of 30 years. The total project cost during the life of the concession contract is estimated at R4.31 billion (US$1.92 billion). The contract involves maintenance, operation, implementation of improvements and capacity expansion of the road segment.

The road stretch is 624.8 km long and passes through 23 municipalities. The segment begins at the junction with the BR - 060 in Annapolis (Goiás) and ends at the junction with the TO- 070 highway in Aliança do Tocantins. The system will feature nine toll plazas.

After there was a lot of activity in the roads sector at the federal level in 2013, this year we are seeing higher activity at the state level.

In mid June we reported that the state of Paraná in Brazil had awarded the state highway PR-323 PPP project to the consortium Consórcio Rota 323, led by Odebrecht Transport Participações S.A. and also formed by Tucuman Engenharia, Goetze Lobato Engenharia and América Empreendimento. The 30-year concession involves duplication of 207km of highway. 162.5 Km will be widened during the first stage of the investment program and 44.3 km during the second stage.

In late June, we announced that Brazil's São Paulo state, through the state transportation agency of São Paulo (ARTESP), had announced that five teams have bid for the Rodovia dos Tamoios highway PPP project.