Competition for Tocumen’s South Terminal heats up

The technical proposals are finally underway to see what company gets to build a South Terminal at Tocumen International Airport. The projected investment is $600 million.

Brazil’s Norberto Odebrecht, Costa Rica’s Meco, Colombia’s Grupo Conalvías and China’s Harbour Engineering Company were the four companies that have submitted the mandatory technical and financial proposals. A total of 33 companies were interested in bidding, participating in the approval process for the tender.

Prensa.com reports that “Being a best value tender with separate evaluation, the financial offer made by the four companies is not yet known. Now an evaluation committee will have 30 days to review the submissions. Once a grade has been assigned for the technical proposal, there will be a second act where bids will be opened and compared with the reference price set by the State.”

The new South Terminal is expected to occupy 50,000 square meters and will house facilities for immigration and customs, passenger boarding, parking lots, commercial areas and 30 boarding gates. These in turn will allow the flow of up to 15 million passengers a year, according to Juan Carlos Pino, manager of Tocumen S.A. The South Terminal will also have its own access to the Southern Corridor Tollway (Corredor Sur) in order to alleviate traffic congestion at the Tocumen Airport complex.

Once the new wing is completed, Tocumen’s main central building structure will cover around 744 square meters, which basically doubles the area of the current terminal.

The South Terminal is a continuation of the expansion of Tocumen over the past few years. Earlier, 12 new gates were constructed on the North Terminal. They are currently operating at maximum capacity.