
At least 200 fronts have works in progress, which reached 14.6% advance by 30 December. However, the projected overall should be 38.3%.
“The start of the project was misrepresented by the financial closure, which caused a delay, we only started in January 2019”, explained Juan Carlos Fandiño,technical manager of Autopistas Urabá.
He added that other aspects that have caused difficulties are the topography between Cañasgordas and Mutatá, as well as the humidity and constant rains.
Last December the concession delivered the stretch between Mutatá and El Tigre (Chigorodó), which comprises 46 kilometers of rehabilitated roads. The ANI makes the intended technical reviews.
The next milestone, in December of this year, will be the accomplishment of the deviation and the Fuemia tunnel, (2.2 kilometers) and the stretch between Dabeiba and Mutatá.
The last functional unit to be completed will be the stretch between Cañasgordas and Dabeiba, which is scheduled to culminate in December 16, 2021. “We hope to recover the delays before that date,” the manager said.
Mar 2 will be spliced with the Toyo Tunnel and the 4G Mar 1 project
The infrastructure connection is divided into six functional units, in the jurisdiction of nine municipalities. It has 63 bridges, 15 tunnels (two of them false) and seven road intersections.
According to the Ministry of Transport, the value of the work amounts to $3.29 billion and aims to generate an interconnection between Medellin and the main road concessions of the country, and in turn connect it with the commercial exchange centers of the Caribbean Coast, the Pacific Coast, as well as with the Magdalena River.
The journey time between Medellin and Necoclí will be reduced from 8 to 4 hours and by truck from Urabá to the Coffee Road from 21 just to 12 hours.
There are 3,500 employees, between direct and indirect, 500 of them are Chinese. It should be noted that project Mar 2 is the first highway project in Colombia in concession involving China Harbour Engineering Company Limited, a subsidiary of China Construction Comunications Company, the fourth largest company in the world in engineering and construction. They also form the concession SP Ingenieros, Unit of infrastructure and constructions associated S.A.S and Termotécnica coindustrial.