The Minas Gerais state government, Brazil, through the "Secretaria de Estado de Transportes e Obras Públicas" (SETOP) has approved the only offer submitted for the Rodoanel Norte highway public private partnership (PPP).

The only bidder for the tender process launched on June 25th was the consortium Rota Metropolitano Norte. The team is formed by Odebrecht Transport, Barbosa Mello Participações e Investimentos and EcoRodovias Infraestrutura e Logística.

The Minas Gerais state government expects to sign the PPP contract before year end so that the works can start at the beginning of 2015. It is expected that the works will take four years to be completed.

The project is the northern stretch of the metropolitan ring road. It will cross 8 cities (Sabará, Santa Luzia, Vespasiano, São José da Lapa, Pedro Leopoldo, Ribeirão das Neves, Contagem e Betim) and it is considered one of the greatest works of the metropolitan area of Belo Horizonte. It will have a length of 66 Km.

The road stretch will link the BR-381 highway, at the junction with the exit to Sao Paulo, and the BR-040 highways, at the junction with the exit to Brasília. Travel time between Betim and Ravenais is expected to decrease from 60 to 36 minutes.

The contract term is 30 years and the estimated value of the investment is R$4 billion (US$1.81 billion), including land acquisition costs. The federal government will contribute with R$800 million (US$363 million) to the project. Land acquisition costs add a total of R$550 million (US$249 million).