The technical proposal presented by the “Line 1” consortium won out over the financial offer made by their opponent, the Italian group “Metro de Panama” in the public bidding process for the design and construction of the mega project. Although the Italian group submitted a lower bid of $1.401 billion dollars, they failed to obtain the necessary points to win the bid. Their disadvantage was in the technical proposal, which was worth 65% of the grade. “This score is the result of the very intense work we have been doing since January, when we started the prequalification process,” said Antonio Gavioli, representing the “Line 1” consortium, in confirming that theirs was the team with the best score of 917 points out of a possible 1,000. Of these, 578 relate to their technical approach and the rest to their bid of $1,446.9 billion dollars to build the project. Odebrecht, which leads the consortium, has built several other projects in Panama, such as the expansion of the “Coastal Strip” along Ave. Balboa, the renewal of the Curundú district, the highway from Panama to Colón, and and contracts related to the project to clean up the Bay of Panama. It is expected that work on the Panama Metro project will begin in January 2011. (La Estrella)

“I just won a contract worth more than $1.4 billion dollars…” Of course he’s happy.

Editor’s Comment: Martinelli wants all of the major projects being started under his administration to be completed before the May 2014 elections, and he wants to have the trains running before then. Odebrecht is a good choice for this project since they have proven over time they can deliver in this environment. Amazingly, they started working for the Panamanian government under the administration of Martin Torrijos, and they are still doing work under the administration of Ricardo Martinelli, so they must be doing something right. However, you can expect traffic hell, starting with the groundbreaking and continuing until the work is complete. They are going to rip up the entire Via España and lay the tracks underground in that part of the city. You’d be better off walking. Buy a scooter. Expect a lot of “we all will have to make sacrifices” rhetoric until the work is done.