Via al plain: “The viaduct is not part of Coviandina’s obligations, nor does it have to receive it” | Infrastructure | Economy

The 90% progress of the viaduct, which will resolve difficulties on the 58km road to Llano between Bogota and Villavicencio, sparked controversy after the viaduct reached 90% completion, as this, while not part of the concession obligations, could enter as part of the contract.

Alberto Mariño Samper, president of Proindesa, the infrastructure holding company of Corficolombiana and Grupo Aval (which operates Coviandina), assured in an interview with Portafolio that we have not yet contacted them regarding this addition to the contract. Furthermore, he points out the conditions they must meet to include it in their portfolio.

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Let’s take a look at the historical difficulties of the 58 km…

The instability at kilometer 58 began when another concessionaire, Coviandes, operated the highway. The current concessionaire, Coviandina, had signed the concession contract in 2015 and started construction of the last third section between Chirajara and Villavicencio.

Discussions between Corviandes and the National Infrastructure Agency regarding kilometer 58 were held in relation to the instability that occurred in 2018, which led to the closure of the highway in 2019, ultimately affecting the works already carried out by Corviandes, Tunnel 13 and the Quebrada Seca Bridge (Ani).

The discussion was referred to the Arbitration Court. The Court issued its ruling in November 2023 and strongly agreed with Coviandes. ANI appealed to the Council of State for annulment. However, in June this year, the Council of State declared this annulment appeal to be groundless, confirming that Coviandes was not responsible for the destabilization of Kilometer 58, nor for the damage suffered by Tunnel 13 and the Quebrada Seca Bridge.

It is in this kilometer that efforts began to resolve the difficulties that arose in 2019, using a viaduct. It is already 90% complete and has been handed over to Invías.

What do you think of this project which is already 10% completed?

The viaduct was contracted by the National Highways Institute around August or September 2021. That is, six years after Corviandina signed the concession contract. In this way, the viaduct could not have been part of Corviandina’s concession contract because it was not even planned.

The viaduct, which Invías has contracted with a contractor to design and construct, is due to be completed in 2024. The viaduct was originally conceived to be completed around July or August 2022. However, this did not happen.

In December 2022, ANI subpoenaed Coviandina and the contract auditor to obtain information and explanations on the 58 kilometers of viaduct that Invías is advancing through Contract No. 1646 of 2021.

The result of this meeting was that when the viaduct contract and the viaduct design were submitted to the Coviandina concessionaire, ANI requested the concessionaire to send the geometrical design, as only ANI had sent the geometrical design to Coviandina, ANI was therefore unable to send Coviandina the geometrical design which it considered necessary.

On January 4, 2023, Coviandina made some normal observations about what he saw in the geometry of the viaduct, namely the forced horizontal and vertical curves and 10% slope in the final section of the viaduct.

It’s worth remembering that they only sent Coviandina the specifications for the geometric design. No other information was available.

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You mentioned that they sent you their input on the viaduct design, what did they tell you?

They did not respond to communications.

What is your comment? Why are you concerned about the viaduct?

Because the geometry of the bridge is complex. There is a horizontal curve and a vertical curve, that is, there is a steep slope and a curve inside the viaduct.

Coviandina’s concerns are completely justified, as the maximum slope of the rest of the highway viaducts is 2% and the design speed is 80 km/h. This is a special viaduct, so it must have special conditions.

So, do you consider the possibility of receiving it?

On top of that, it was not necessary to take over the viaduct because it was not part of Coviandina’s operation and maintenance obligations. No one, absolutely no one, called Coviandina, not ANI, not anyone, to tell them that I was at least interested in handing over the viaduct to them so that they could operate and maintain it.

What does this mean? Since it is not within the scope of Coviandina, in order to receive, operate and maintain the 58 km long viaduct, a prior agreement must be reached between ANI and Coviandina to determine the conditions of implementation and how to implement the responsibility for handling costs not foreseen in the contract and based on the design and work intended to be delivered to Coviandina.

Today, the only people responsible for the viaduct are the Invías, who have to accept the construction from the contractor. The issue of how to maintain the viaduct must be resolved between the Invías and the ANI. Today, Corviandina has absolutely nothing to do with that viaduct.

ANI never expressed interest in you running it?

No. ANI has not communicated anything to Coviandina that I know of, that they told Coviandina, let’s sit down and talk, or we’re going to let you operate the viaduct. And ANI is going to have to fund these new costs that Coviandina will incur to operate and maintain the viaduct.

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Have you analyzed how much this might cost you?

We have not yet done this analysis because we do not even know the final design and all its documentation, we only know the geometrical part of the bridge, which is shown and informed to us. For Corviandina, there is not enough information missing to consider this possibility.

If there is an offer, are you willing to accept it?

As I said, as soon as there is an agreement between Coviandina and ANI on the responsibilities to be assumed by each party, Coviandina will operate the bridge, because the design is not Coviandina’s, it is not the concessionaire’s, it is a design outside the concessionaire, certain special conditions, which must be taken into account in the final agreement document.

In summary, when do you expect the corridor to be fully operational?

It is difficult to say for several reasons. The 58 km viaduct only solves the operation of the highway that was already in service and passes through the middle of Guayabetal, but the new highway from before Guayabetal to after the Chirajara Bridge could not be put into operation during the tunnel period. 13 and the bridge over the Seca Canyon was not rebuilt.

How is the reconstruction process going? What is the government’s comment after receiving the award?

Nothing, ANI has not made any statement so far. After the verdict was confirmed and the appeal against the dismissal was declared without merit, ANI did not take a stand.

I remember that what happened in tunnel 13 was not related to Coviandina, it corresponded to Coviandes, who has not yet received a response on that issue, because to do that we also have to solve the instability at kilometer 58. This is very important.

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This section is extremely important because we still have four tunnels and four viaducts yet to be commissioned that will allow the Bogotá-Villavicencio highway to have a double lane.

When will it be fully operational? Well, we still depend on these types of situations.

What other key points need to be addressed?

There are a number of key points that are perfectly defined. It is also clear that these key points will in principle be pursued by the National Highways Institute using national resources, as they are also not part of the concession contract. However, so far we have been informed that the Ministry of Transport is acquiring resources in order to address these key issues.

The agreement reached between ANI and Coviandina is virtually complete. Those issues that Invias took over are being resolved, but many others are not.

Paula Galeano Balaguera
Portfolio Reporter
* Proindesa belongs to the business group that controls the El tiempo publishing house, to which Portafolio is also affiliated.