Marechal Rondon Oeste Highway

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BR Vias SP, a consortium of the Brazilian companies Comporte Participacoes e Vaud Participacoes, was awarded the project to expand, rehabilitate and operate the 331.13 km long toll road in October 2008 and took over the operation of the highway in May 2009, when the 30-year concession contract was signed. The Marechal Rondon Oeste Highway (SP-300) links the municipality of Bauru to Castilho, located in the border of Sao Paulo state and Mato Grosso do Sul state. A total of 25 cities are served by the highway: Bauru, Avai, Presidente Alves, Pirajui, Guaranta, Cafelandia, Lins, Guaicara, Promissao, Avanhadava, Penapolis, Glicerio, Coroados, Birigui, Aracatuba, Guararapes, Rubiacea, Bento de Abreu, Valparaiso, Lavinia, Mirandopolis, Guaracai, Murutinga do Sul, Andradina e Castilho. The contract was granted in a competitive bidding process based on the lowest toll rate criteria. Seven bidders took part in the process, besides the winning consortium BR Vias SP: consortium Invepar-OAS; Equipav S.A. Pavimentacao, Engenharia e Comercio; consortium Autorondon; Triunfo Participações e Investimentos; Odebrecht Investimentos e Infraestrutura Ltda; and the consortium CEGEMS-Rondon Oeste. The winning bid was 46.7% below the ceiling set by the state regulatory agency. Via Rondon also committed to invest in 8.5 km of access roads and in 243.8 km of non-tolled roadways. The bidding process for the second stage of the Sao Paulo state toll road concession program took place between October 2008 and early 2009 and the five awarded projects comprised the operation of 1715 km of highways in total. Altogether, the concessionaires committed to the duplication of 359 km, 526 km of additional tracks and new shoulders, besides the construction or expansion of access roadways, 317 bridges and viaducts and over 65 new pedestrians crossing bridges. The works were expected to benefit 171 municipalities with a total of 21 million inhabitants. The concessionaires also committed to maintaining 900 km of local toll free roadways. When the contract was signed, Via Rondon’s shares, the company created to manage the project, were fully-owned by the companies that comprised BR Vias SP, which belonged to the same owners of the Brazilian airline company GOL. The private sponsor committed to pay US$ 205.5 million (BRL 411 million) to the government for the concession rights (20% of this value was paid when the contract was signed and the rest was agreed to be paid in 18 monthly installments) and was expected to invest US$ 600 million (BRL 1,200 million) during the 30-year contract. The toll rates started to be charged in January 2010. In December 2011, the state-owned bank BNDES granted a US$ 210.6 million (BRL 343.7 million) loan to the company to finance the infrastructure works. Source of information: project company's website, regulatory agency, ABCR and news outlets