CHILE: Metro de Santiago expects to invite bids by mid-November for the first of nine contracts for the supply of electrical and mechanical systems to equip its new Lines 3 and 6, which are due to open in 2018 and 2016 respectively.
The largest single expansion of the capital’s metro network includes 37·4 route-km and 28 stations, with the two fully-automated steel-wheeled lines seen as a technological step-change from the original rubber-tyred network. The two lines are expected to carry around 130 million passengers/year, with five-car trains running at minimum headways of 90 sec to deliver a design capacity of 20 000 passengers/h per direction.
Holding a series of roadshows during September, Metro de Santiago explained its intention to procure the E&M works through international tendering of four main packages and five single-item contracts. Civil engineering works are being managed by local companies under a series of smaller contracts, as with previous metro extensions.
The first package to be awarded covers the track, rigid catenary and tunnel walkways with integrated cable ducts. This will be followed in December by a package covering the CBTC signalling & train control, vehicles and workshop equipment, with a 15-year maintenance contract; together the two packages account for around 20% of the entire US$2·75bn project cost.
The remaining packages covering station E&M works and communications are to be let in the first half of 2013, along with contracts for the power supply network, platform screen doors, tunnel ventilation, ticketing and the operations control centre.
Seven consortia have reportedly expressed interest in the signalling and rolling stock package, including a grouping of Invensys Rail with CSR and a another pairing Thales with CAF.
- For more details of Lines 3 and 6, read our interview with Metro de Santiago CEO Roberto Bianchi in the June issue of Metro Report International.
