Panama prepares to call bids on US$300mn upgrade of East Pan-American highway

Panama's public-private partnership authority has approved the contract to repair and upgrade a section of the East Pan-American highway, as well as the tender criteria.

The ministry of public works (MOP) presented the documents to the PPP authority for revision as required by law and, now they are approved, the third phase of the process can go ahead, which includes calling for and assessing proposals from interested parties. 

The project, which has the ID number RAPP-P1-009-2021, includes works on 256km of the highway, or around 30% of its total length. 

“The Pan-American highway is the most important route and is the country’s main logistics platform. It is 750km long and crosses the main provinces of the national territory, from the border with Costa Rica to Darién province, on the border with Colombia,” reads the approval document published by the MOP on Twitter. 

The US$292mn project was first presented in 2021 and involves repairs, maintenance and upgrade of a 246km section of the highway between Las Garzas de Pacora in Panamá province and Yaviza in Darién province, east of Panama City. 

The works have been split into three sections. The repairs are scheduled to take between one and two years, to be followed by 10-11 years of maintenance. 

The program is part of the performance-based contract maintenance program that is designed to rehabilitate 2,000km of highways across the country.