THE GOVERNMENT of the Argentinian province of Mendoza has received a total of seven bids for a contract to undertake civils, track, electrification, signalling and telecommunications work for the first phase of a tram-train network serving the provincial capital (RG 2.07 p60).
This would run from for 12 km from Las Heras in the centre of Mendoza city to Gutiérrez, serving 16 stops and making use of a currently disused 1 676 mm gauge railway alignment. The government set a budget of 63·8m pesos for building the new system to 1 000 mm gauge, while bidders were also required to price a 1 435 mm gauge option for which a budget of 64·7m pesos had been set.
Bids from the seven consortia ranged from 41m to 134·2m pesos for the basic option and from 44·4 m to 134·4 m for 1 435 mm gauge. Once the contract is awarded, work is expected to take 12 months to complete.
