FCC will receive a payment of 44.8 million Panamanian balboas (47 million euros) for the work carried out on a highway project in Panama, which has been transferred to another Spanish company, Puentes, for its completion with a new, cheaper design.
According to an addendum to the original contract signed in 2018 by FCC Construccion and the operator CICSA (infrastructure and construction division of Carlos Slim’s Carso Group), half of this amount had already been paid previously and the rest is subject to mandatory compliance.
The initial budget for this project, called Corredor de las Playas, was around 600 million euros. However, later, compensation costs for expropriation of farms were recorded that were not taken into account in the specifications.
Likewise, the impact of the pandemic and the increase in the prices of raw materials made it unfeasible for the State to carry out a price review, so the FCC consortium decided to exit the project as designed, although receiving the corresponding payment. for services rendered.
The same addendum also includes the transfer of the project to the Puentes company, which will now be in charge of completing the works, based on a more economical design. Specifically, from about 32 kilometers in length it has become only 7 kilometers.
For this reason, the budget allocated by the State will also be much lower than that initially proposed, now around 250 million euros, including the cost of the works, compensation for expropriations and maintenance for 3 years.
The work consists of expanding the La Chorrera-Santa Cruz section of the Corredor de las Playas, which is part of the Pan-American Highway, to six lanes. Located in the province of Panama Oeste, the current road is the only one that connects the nation’s capital with the interior provinces, registering a high intensity of vehicle traffic.
In addition to increasing the number of lanes from four to six, the most outstanding action will be to build the La Chorrera viaduct, 1,756 meters long and 26.5 meters wide, with 43-meter spans and deep foundations with 1-meter piles. 5 meters in diameter.
FCC has carried out various projects in Panama, such as the construction of metro lines 1 and 2, the rehabilitation of bridges or the construction of highways, and will continue to participate in new tenders that the State calls.
Source: Europa Press
