Dominican rail projects: one tender awarded, another voided

The Dominican Republic has awarded a major contract for engineering and construction of the Santiago monorail but has suffered delays in awarding key studies and engineering for the Santo Domingo metropolitan train. 

The mass transport development fund (Fitram) – which last year received approval from congress to become the country’s mass transport planner, supervisor and operator – launched the tenders in December.

Both projects are part of President Luis Abinader’s pledge to invest in public transportation in urban areas.

Santo Domingo metropolitan train

Fitram is set to relaunch the studies tender for the capital city’s project after it voided the previous contest due to negative comments from participants regarding the evaluation criteria. 

“It is shown that the resulting scores could present variability according to the expert evaluation criteria, implying subjectivity that could affect the principle of fairness in the evaluation of offers,” the fund said in its cancellation notice published on April 4.

Three bidders submitted offers to carry out the studies, but their bids were not unveiled due to the cancellation. The bidding groups were Atteco, Consorcio Proyecto-Quisquella-Ardanuy and Dohwa. 

The 50km passenger and freight rail link will run from the Duarte highway, where it will connect to Santo Domingo cable car line No. 2, to Las Américas international airport, with 41 stations. 

Santiago monorail

Meanwhile, two bidders submitted technical and economic offers for the engineering and construction of the monorail in February, and a month later, Fitram awarded the contract to Consorcio Sistema de Transporte Metropolitano de Santiago (CSTM), which offered 25bn pesos (US$454mn).

The other participant, Consorcio Aeroriel, offered 25.7bn pesos. 

The 16km monorail will have 14 stations, capacity to transport 20,000 passengers per direction per hour and connect with the 6.5km Santiago cable car line under construction and six bus rapid transit corridors.