The consortium FCC Corredor de las Playas I, formed by FCC Construcción and the operator CICSA (infrastructures and construction division of the Grupo Carso), has won the bid to widen the first section of the Inter-American Highway (Panama). The consortium had the best technical score and the best economic proposal for widening the Inter-American Highway to six lanes between La Chorrera and Santa Cruz in the province of Panama Oeste.

The project to widen section I has an undertaking schedule of more than 20 months and a budget of $543 million. Its purpose is to improve conditions on the 32.7 kilometres affected by it, involving the design, construction and maintenance and improving the connection with the end of the Arraiján - La Chorrera motorway and the new Pan-American Highway. The project includes work on two bypasses (Capira and Campana) which will be adapted to the road’s new dimensions.

With the development of this infrastructure, the project to be undertaken by FCC and CICSA will improve transport for the inhabitants in the interior regions of Panama, thus allowing national tourism to be improved. This is joined by a new organisation of traffic flows for heavy loads and for users in nearby centres of population, who will benefit from considerably reduced driving times. Thanks to this infrastructure, nearly 30,000 vehicles an hour will be able to travel.

FCC Construcción has wide experience in building international motorways. In Panama, the FCC Group’s infrastructures area has built sections 1 and 2 of the Vía Brasil corridor and rehabilitated and enlarged the Arraiján - La Chorrera section of the Pan-American Highway. Its motorways portfolio also notably includes the Nuevo Necaxa, in Mexico, the location of the San Marcos viaduct, the second highest in the world.