Posted on September 7, 2021
Mexican port authorities will award in September contracts for a new container terminal and other complementary works that form part of the 9bn-peso (US$452mn) stage two of the Pajaritos lagoon infrastructure project at Coatzacoalcos port in Veracruz state.
At least seven tenders were launched recently for electrical, water and sewage networks, clearing the area where the port infrastructure will be built, and for safety structures, signaling intentions of starting the big projects soon.
Coatzacoalcos port authority API awarded on August 17 a contract to Consultores Asociados para el Desarrollo Sustentable to carry out the environmental impact statement (EIS) for a freight rail line to access the port project.
Expanding Coatzacoalcos port is a government priority and part of the 20bn-peso, 300km Tehuantepec isthmus rail corridor, which will link Coatzacoalcos and Salinas Cruz port in Oaxaca state.
PAJARITOS LAGOON TERMINAL STAGE 2
Plans for a new terminal area in front of the Pajaritos lagoon have been underway since 2008 when the government started stage one of the project. However, stage two progressed only under the Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) administration.
The first stage involved a new 273m dock, dredging works, a railway system, and other complementary works.
Stage two includes adding stretches of about 330m to the dock, dredging 60,000m3 of silted material in canals, expanding the railway system, a new 7.5ha area for storing containers and a new 0.5km four-lane highway access, according to the cost-benefit analysis that was completed in 2014.
On March 19, AMLO and the head of the interoceanic corridor project agency (CIIT), Rafael Marín Mollinedo, inaugurated the 330mn-peso expansion of Coatzacoalcos port’s Laguna de Pajaritos dock to 400m and a 49mn-peso access road.
In a statement, CIIT said officials presented the president the container terminal project. Operations are planned to start early next year and container handling capacity should reach 1.3mn by the end of 2023.
API Coatzacoalcos director Antonio Luna told local media last year that the overall port project would be tendered this year.
