Federal and state entities are launching tenders for highway works to be started in early 2020 across Mexico.
The works could boost a sector that recorded a dismal 2019.
While the big projects were saved for the 2020-24 national infrastructure program (PNI), which introduced 142 projects financed by the private sector in November, smaller works such as reconstruction and maintenance are being financed by the public sector.
For example, the federal government urged the companies to participate in a public tender for the maintenance of 53 structures along the Mexico-Cuernavaca highway connecting Mexico City with Cuernavaca city in Morelos state, according to a filing in the official federal bulletin.
But more tenders for Morelos state are about to be launched.
According to descriptions of tenders published on government procurement site CompraNet, federal roads and bridges commission Capufe will receive bids for maintenance works at 14 highways in Morelos from January 6 through early February. The commission will award contracts for up to 300 days, depending on highway length.
Capufe is also tendering concessions for highway maintenance in the states of Querétaro, Durango, Baja California, Guerrero, Veracruz and others, adding up to 60 tenders starting on January 6.
NEW PROJECTS
Starting on January 3, the transportation and communications ministry (SCT) will launch 12 tenders for road and highway reconstruction and modernization plus two tenders for new highways in Baja California state.
One tender is for the completion of the highway between Mexicali city and a port in Lago Chapala, Ensenada municipality. The process will be open from January 8 through February 16 and require, among other things, drainage works, pavements, complementary works, horizontal and vertical signaling.
Another tender is for a contract to build a passage at the Mexico-US border in Mexicali city.
Works require using sheet piling and hydraulic concrete bearing slab for three crossing lanes, each 3.5m. The contract also includes building a road bridge, a railway bridge, a pedestrian bridge, dirt roads, drainage works, pavements, and requires complementary works and horizontal and vertical signage, according to CompraNet.
The nature of tender processes makes it impossible to estimate required investments though. But the Baja California office of the SCT said earlier in December that it has a budget of 608mn pesos (US$32mn).
BENEFICIARIES
For next year, the government has a vast project portfolio, which should mostly benefit the troubled construction sector.
According to a report by statistics office Inegi, construction of commercial and services real estate and housing fell 9.4% in October compared to the same month of 2018.
Inegi also reported in its 2019 national construction survey that August’s figures for both public and private works were the lowest since 2007.
The government attempted to deal with the crisis by launching some 800 tenders, but even those efforts could not stop the sector’s decline.
Officials now hopes that with the PNI, the construction sector begins to report more positive figures.
Aside from the 1,600 PNI projects, state and federal entities have even more works on their agendas.
