Skip to main content

Brazil’s budget cuts threaten the Santos-Guaruja immersed tunnel

August 18, 2015
Adjustments to Brazil's budget could pose a threat to the planned immersed tunnel between Santos and Guaruja in Sao Paulo state, local media reported.

Sao Paulo state had put the project out to tender and had verbal support from the national treasury to borrow up to US$2 billion to finance the project. However, because of the economic crisis, this support has not materialised.

The tunnel would by 1.7km long, carry six lanes of traffic and be at an estimated depth of 35m.

Out of $918 million needed for the tunnel, Brazil's national development bank BNDES had already approved $269 million while the state of Sao Paulo had committed $258 million, leaving a $373 million gap. Sao Paulo state has half the resources needed already but it will not go ahead with the project until all the funds are available, local media reported.

Out of five consortia that presented a commercial proposal, four are prequalified: ISG Interligacao Santos-Guaruja, made of 1339 Andrade Gutierrez, 3086 Daewoo and CR Almeida; Nova Travessia, made of Constran, Ing E Mantovani and Piacentini Tecenge do Brasil; Tunel Santos-Guaruja, made of 1305 Odebrecht, Queiroz Galvao, 1511 OAS and Strukton; Sigma, made of J Malucelli Construtora de Obras, Grandi Lavori and 7809 Salini Impregilo; and Construtor Tunel Santos-Guaruja, made of Camargo Correa, 2717 Ferrovial Agroman and Carioca Engenharia.

Sao Paulo’s state highway agency 2529 Dersa has produced a video of the proposed submerged tunnel.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Increased infrastructure spending
    February 22, 2012
    With economies booming in the BRIC countries and other regions, spending on infrastructure is at a high - Patrick Smith reports As economic crisis grips much of the world, many countries are still spending billions on infrastructure to improve transportation. While the USA and Europe struggle with debt problems (and this has affected much of the rest of the world) the development of highways, airport, ports and other infrastructure is gathering pace in other regions to boost economic developments.
  • Poland: Budimex picks up S3 express road work near Lubin
    December 18, 2014
    The Polish construction consortium of Budimex and Ferrovial Agroman has won a tender to build a 22.6km section of the S3 express road between Silesian town of Legnica in the southwest and Lubin Poludiine, around 170km southeast of the capital Warsaw. The bid by the consortium, in which Budimex has a 95% stake, was nearly US$234 million and construction is expected to take 30 months. Ferrovial Agroman is the engineering and construction arm of Spanish infrastructure group Ferrovial. In early December,
  • Costa Rica to replace Conavi with a National Infrastructure Institute
    March 14, 2016
    Amid concerns over the efficiency of Costa Rica’s highways agency Conavi, the authority has been given more time to provide details on expansion of Route 32, according to the La Republica newspaper. Conavi has been at loggerheads with the Treasury Inspector's Office which wants Conavi to move faster and authorise a contract for the expansion of road between Rio Frio and Limon granted to China Harbour Engineering Company. China Harbour has been requesting further details about the US$395 million projec
  • Guatemala highway upgrade and widening project
    December 15, 2016
    Guatemala is opening the tender process to improve and widen the CA-2 Occidente highway connection between Cocales and Tecun Uman. The Ministry of Communications, Infrastructure and Housing (CIV) is handling the tender for the project. Cocales is located in Guatemala’s Suchitepequez region, while Tecun Uman is in San Marcos. The highway capacity upgrade has an estimated cost of US$397.2 million to carry out. However, the project has been the subject of some controversy as the Brazilian contractor Odebrec