A consortium headed by ACS and FCC has been awarded a contract worth 3.9 billion euro to design, build, finance, operate and maintain line 2 of Lima Metro and a spur from Line 4 to the airport. Construction is expected to take five years, after which the consortium will operate the lines for 30 years.

The winning consortium, named Nuevo Metro de Lima, is headed by ACS Group subsidiaries Dragados and Iridium, and by FCC subsidiary Vialia, together with Italian companies Impregilo and Ansaldo. The latter will provide electromechanical equipment and rolling stock. Also participating is Peruvian company Cosapi. Metro de Madrid will act as advisor for the project.

The contract involves building 35 underground stations along 35 kilometres of tunnel. Over 3,000 professionals will work on the project. The choice of an underground transit system will reduce the impact on city life as well as transforming neighbourhoods since many of the locations under the new Metro line will become green areas.

Line 2, measuring almost 27 kilometres in length, will run east-west through Lima, from Ate to Callao, where FCC is also working to upgrade the port. Once operational, the 27 stations will serve over 600,000 travellers per day, who will save up to 90 minutes on their commute. It currently takes two hours and twenty minutes to travel that route by car.

The spur from line 4 to connect the city to the airport will run along 8 kilometres of tunnel, from Avenida Faucett to Avenida Néstor Gambetta. Eight stations will be built along this line.

The contract also includes executing the superstructure, supplying the rolling stock, and installing the electromechanical equipment, railway systems and power supply required to run the underground railway.

Sound partners with worldwide references

The members of the Nuevo Metro de Lima consortium have extensive experience and prestigious international references in the design, construction and operation of underground railways. They currently manage over 100 transport concessions worldwide and have built over 3,650 kilometres of tunnel, including 800 kilometres with tunnel-boring machines (TBM). Some members of the consortium are experts in railway equipment and signalling and in manufacturing rolling stock.

Their principal references include the subways of New York, Toronto, Panama, London, Copenhagen, Rome, Milan, Buenos Aires, Riyadh and Doha. In Spain, they have built underground railways in Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla, Bilbao and Valencia.

The project presented by the consortium to Agencia de Promoción de la Inversión Privada (Proinversión), an agency of the Peruvian Ministry of Transport, will put the Lima metropolitan area to the forefront of sustainable urban transport.