Acciona consortium takes over from Odebrecht on €2.3bn São Paulo metro

A consortium led by Spanish contractor Acciona is to take over the construction of São Paulo's Metro Line 6, also known as the Orange Line, which has been stalled for the past four years.

Line 6 will be 15km long, running from the centre of the city northwest to many of São Paulo's main university districts. Some 600,000 passengers a day will use its 15 stations when the line becomes operational in 2025.

When work is completed, Acciona will oversee the line's operation and maintenance for 19 years.

The €2.3bn project is being reassigned from the Move consortium, formed of Odebrecht TransPort, Queiroz Galvão and UTC, which won a contract for the project in 2013. However, construction work on the line has been at a standstill since 2016.

The project, which is expected to create 9,000 jobs, is Acciona's largest infrastructure project, and the largest public-private infrastructure project under development in Latin America.

João Doria, São Paulo's governor, said: "It is the largest infrastructure project in Brazil and Latin America from the point of view of investment and direct and indirect jobs.

"The completion of the works is scheduled for 2025 and now we have no reason to doubt its continuity and compliance with this deadline. This was extensively studied by the metro team, by the Acciona team, so that this deadline can be met. There is no more obstacle of a legal nature, neither administrative, nor institutional, nor a lack of resources." 

This article originally appeared on Global Construction Review
Image courtesy of Acciona