Section five comprises the 121km stretch from Cancun to Tulum, which will run from Cancun Airport via the resort city of Playa del Carmen. The consortium is overseeing the upgrade of the 307 highway between the two locations and has proposed including the railway as part of this work in a unsolicited proposal to the Mexican government. A further public procurement process will be launched for railway infrastructure along this section of line.
Greenfield and BlackRock are joined in the consortium by Promotora y Desarrolladora Mexicana; Promotora y Desarrolladora Mexicana de Infraestructura; Prodemex Construcciones and Constructora de Infraestructura Nacional.
The 257km section four between Izamal and Cancun was directly awarded to the ICA consortium, which owns the concession for the Mérida - Cancun motorway, and will also involve constructing the new railway as part of the road structure. This proposal shaved approximately Pesos 6.5bn ($US 290m) from the original cost of the project and reduced its length by 55km.
Fonatur is set to announce the results of the technical offer and open the economic offer for section five on August 25. A ruling on the bid will be announced on August 31, and if accepted, the contract will be signed seven days after the ruling.
The expected contract award comes after Fonatur announced that more than 40% of the 1475km route, specifically 690km between Mérida on section three, Cancun on section five and Chetumal on section six, will be electrified. Fonatur is set to launch the tender process to buy a fleet of electric and electro-diesel hybrid trains this autumn.
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