ATLAPA and Tocumen Airport contracts awarded

Two very important infrastructure expansion projects have been awarded by the Panamanian government – the ATLAPA Convention Center and the Tocumen International Airport South Terminal. Both were won by Norberto Odebrecht out of Brazil for $240 million and $680 million respectively.

In the ATLAPA tender, Norberto Odebrecht won out over lower bids by HPC-Contrata-P&V, composed of firms HPC (Panama), Architectural Solutions (Costa Rica), P & V (Panama), Heliopol (Spain) and Quality Construction (Puerto Rico) that bid $194 million and were considered the front runners. Coming in third was Mexico’s Ingenieros Civiles y Asociados (ICA) with a bid of $146.8 million. ICA has a long history of construction projects in Panama and is said to be contesting the contract award process.

The expanded ATLAPA is planned to be built on a landfill between El Chorrillo and the Amador Causeway as part of the overall Causeway development plan.

In the Tocumen tender, Norberto Odebrecht won over the China Harbour Engineering Company, Meco of Costa Rica and Conalvías of Colombia. Meco, and Conalvías, were disqualified for not meeting the government tenderer’s financial conditions. Originally another 29 companies expressed interest in the Tocumen bid but did not complete the qualification process.

The contract award was based on a technical and an economic evaluation ‘best value’ scale for a maximum total score of 70. Odebrecht scored 68, the China Harbour Engineering Co. came in at 47.

Tocumen’s South Terminal is part of an ongoing airport expansion due to traffic increases. The South Terminal will provide a new control tower, 20 more boarding gates and a third landing strip with taxiways. Plans also specify a new four-lane feeder road to Corredor Sur to avoid traffic congestion. The terminal will feature duty-free status as well. The area of construction has been estimated at 50,000 m2, doubling the size of the current Tocumen complex.