Brazil´s Bahia Government is aiming to “start soon” the construction of Salvador-Itaparica Bridge, a China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) project worth around USD 1.2 billion.
The governor of Bahia, Jerónimo Rodrigues, met last week, in Brasília, with the Minister of the Civil Cabinet, Rui Costa, and with the Chinese ambassador to Brazil, Zhu Qingqiao, to discuss the Salvador-Itaparica bridge.
Following the meeting, Costa posted that he “continues to move forward so that the Salvador-Itaparica Bridge has works started soon”.
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Rodrigues also posted about the meeting on social networks, saying that “future and existing partnerships” were discussed.
During a trip to China in April, Rodrigues had a meeting with the president of CCCC, to discuss technical and financial aspects of the project, which was initially scheduled to start in 2021.
The Salvador – Itaparica Island Bridge will be 12.4 km long and could be considered the largest over water depth in Latin America. No date for the start of the works has been set.
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The bid for the construction and management of the bridge was held in December 2019 and the winner was a group formed by China Railway 20 Bureau Group Corporation – CR20; CCCC South America Regional Company S.Á.R.L – CCCC SOUTH AMERICA and China Communications Construction Company Limited – CCCCLTD.
The contract between the consortium and the state government for the construction of the bridge was signed in November 2020.
According to the government, the concession for the project under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) will be for 35 years.
The Brazilian government´s estimate is that seven thousand jobs will be generated during the construction phase and around 100 thousand jobs in 30 years.
The equipment is part of the Oeste Road System, which also includes the implementation of access to the equipment in Salvador, through tunnels and viaducts, and other regional highways.
