Transmetro cost could be double original estimate

Transmetro, the urban transport system for Barranquilla in Colombia's Atlantico department, will cost double the estimated US$120mn to develop, El Heraldo quoted president of the department's architects association, Jaime de Biasse, as saying. De Biasse said project costs would reach US$240mn because necessary works have not been included in calculations. These include road repairs, land acquisition and enlarging streets into avenues, as there is not one road in the city that meets the technical specifications for the system, according to the newspaper. "All the arterial roads that have been proposed have to be submitted to new infrastructure, including road paving, expropriation and widening," de Biasse said. However, a Transmetro spokesperson dismissed this as "speculation", maintaining that the project will cost less than US$50mn. "We are in the process of making the design studies and will not have definite design plans until August," the spokesperson told BNamericas. A bidding process for the construction will be convened in October and awarded in February 2005, with the intention of starting the 12-month construction period the following March.