BRAZIL: Mining company Vale submitted engineering design documents for the 92∙8 km Ferrovia Kennedy to the Espírito Santo state government in early July.
The line from Anchieta to Presidente Kennedy near the border of Rio de Janeiro state will serve Piúma, Iconha, Rio Novo do Sul and Itapemirim and is intended to foster development in the region.
The project would form an extension of the planned Santa Leopoldina – Anchieta branch of the 1 000 mm gauge Vitória a Minas Railway which is currently being examined by the federal transport ministry and the National Land Transport Agency. It also forms part of the EF118 project for a 580 km rail link running inland from the Atlantic coast to São João da Barra and Nova Iguaçu, northwest of Rio de Janeiro. The alignment will require construction of 10 bridges and seven viaducts.
Vale is providing R$3∙5m of financial support for socio-environmental studies of the Ferrovia Kennedy. These will be carried out under the supervision of the state government by management consultancy Espírito Santo em Ação with assistance from the Federation of Industries of Espírito Santo.
Alexandre D’Ambrósio, Executive Vice President at Vale, said that ‘our goal is to strengthen the partnership with the state government and participate in the development of infrastructure in the southern region. This is why we are donating the project design and providing resources for socio-environmental studies.’
