The state of Rio Grande do Sul and the municipality of Porto Alegre have released a Request for Expressions of Interest (PMI) for the submission of Feasibility studies and Detailed Project Report for a public private partnership contract for the development of Phase 1 of Porto Alegre's subway.

Request to participate must be submitted by November 18th. Then, authorized companies will have 90 days to develop the studies, which will have a value of R$4.150.000 (US$2.3 million).

Cut and cover construction method

New studies will consider the cut and cover construction method after discarding the deep digging method in preliminary studies.

Two studies submitted on February 7 for the first PMI were not satisfactory. One was submitted by Brusten PM and was discarded because it did not comply with the requirements. The other proposal was submitted by Invepar - Odebrecht and it estimated the construction costs as if carried out by deep digging.

Although this last option would cause less impact on mobility, its costs are not feasible. The construction of the subway will be done with the cut and cover method, said the Mayor. The city has a budget of R$ 3.085 billion (US$1.7 billion) and the amount estimated by the Invepar-Odebrecht consortium was R$ 9.5 billion (US$5.2 billion).

See Request for Expressions of Interest: http://www2.portoalegre.rs.gov.br/portal_pmpa_novo/default.php?p_secao=95