[ad_1]
Given that the construction sector was one of the first to return to normal, despite the emergency caused by COVID-19, it ended its reactivation early and today is running against time to meet the proposed schedules. Balance of what was delivered and what is pending.
Not for nothing has infrastructure been chosen by recent governments as one of the engines of the economy and has been allocated a billionaire budget. The sector has more and more participation in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which in its best times showed quarterly growth of 14% (April-June 2019) and until the first quarter of 2020 it had a remarkable performance (10%) . In these times of pandemic, it is key to keep it afloat to accelerate the country’s economic recovery and overcome the current crisis due to its multiplier effect.
Although COVID-19 forced the suspension of most of the ongoing projects for at least two months, which meant long delays, the Government was able to fulfill two important promises this year: to put the La Línea tunnel into operation, after a decade of work to cross the Central mountain range between Cajamarca and Calarcá, and deliver the first fourth generation project (4G), the Girardot-Honda-Puerto Salgar highway, a 190-kilometer highway that crosses three departments (Cundinamarca, Tolima and Caldas) , in which $ 1.9 trillion were invested. The opening of the first took place on September 4, the second entered service on July 10.
In addition, several sections of concessioned projects have been put into operation, such as the 84 kilometers of functional unit 1 of Puerta de Hierro-Cruz del Viso, in Bolívar. Progress was also made in the construction of the Toyo tunnel (9.8 kilometers) and its accesses, in Antioquia. This was possible because the construction sector resumed activities at high speed, in September all the contracts in force at the beginning of this year had already been reactivated, before the pandemic.
However, not everything was good news, due to the lost months, significant delays accumulated in the works that the National Infrastructure Agency (ANI) has been evaluating, mainly to extend the concession contracts, but this ended up running the calendar of 2021, which should start with new tenders. This made it impossible for the progress of projects such as 4G to reach the expected level. The year-end winter season didn’t help either. On the one hand, it is necessary to seek additional resources to repair the damage caused by the heavy rains, on the other, works such as the Central Cordillera Crossing (La Línea tunnel) did not have continuous service given the landslides in the area.
Regarding tertiary roads, this year the first phase of the Rural Colombia program began, in which it is estimated to invest $ 3 billion between now and 2022 for the rehabilitation of about 140 thousand kilometers of rural roads. According to Invías, despite the pandemic, in the last four months they have advanced in works with more than 180 signed agreements that total 1,250 kilometers in length.
Finally, progress was made in structuring the fifth wave of concessions (5G), which is made up of 24 projects for around $ 21 billion, road, rail, river and airport. These include the Valle del Cauca road network and the Cali-Palmira access, which is in the bidding stage, and the public-private partnerships (PPP) of the Magdalena River and the Canal del Dique, both in prequalification processes, or the of the Troncal del Magdalena, which is being evaluated by the Ministry of Finance. Additionally, within the framework of the Commitment to Colombia program, Invías announced that it will invest around $ 11 billion in public works contracts over the next two years for the construction of 50 new infrastructure projects totaling 1,620 kilometers, and its objective is to complete road corridors those that had been invested in the past, but were not finalized
Air transport has also been consolidating its reactivation. Despite the critical point it reached after the total suspension of the commercial passenger operation for six months, 21 of 59 contracts in progress were reactivated and the execution of 15 of them was completed, so that the expansion and modernization of the airports of Armenia, Pasto, Cali, Cartagena and Leticia. In fact, the reduction in itineraries was taken advantage of to carry out other works that would have been complex under normal conditions, such as the adaptation of the second runway at the El Dorado airport in Bogotá.
The reaction of the demand saved the airlines, which were on the verge of bankruptcy due to lack of income, from their financial problems. To date, 55% of the market has recovered with more than 1.5 million passengers per month and gradually the itineraries return to normal (the airlines reached, on average, 30% of their capacity). It is still necessary to reach the usual figures of up to 3 million passengers per month, but there is a great advance, considering that the first weeks barely reached 2,000 passengers per day, and the industry remains optimistic.
Regarding the railroad mode, in addition to the increase in the load that moves through the Central Railroad and the Bogotá-Belencito line, and the advances in passenger projects such as the Regiotram de Occidente and the Bogotá metro, at the end of November the The Government presented the Railway Master Plan, a roadmap that aims to solve the backlog in the rail networks and take advantage of them to improve logistics competitiveness, which will begin to be executed next year.
In order to finance these initiatives, the Government made the decision to expand the fiscal ceiling to start new works. To leverage itself, this year the National Development Finance (FDN) placed $ 1 trillion in bonds within its strategy to diversify sources of financing. Future validities up to 10 years ahead were also committed for projects of the Vías para la Legidad y la Reactivación Vision 2030 program.
