Bolivia road contract awarded to Chinese firm

RSSA Chinese contractor will carry out a major highway project in Bolivia. The company, 5544 Sinohydro, will construct a new road section close to El Sillar and the work will form part of the highway connecting Santa Cruz with Cochabamba. The work for the 28km stretch of road is costing around US$450 million to carry out and the link is due to open to traffic in 2019. Work on this section of road was intended to commence earlier but was delayed due to a number of unexpected administrative issues. Financing for this section of road is being delivered by the Chinese Exim Bank. Bolivia is upgrading transport infrastructure in Cochabamba, with a budget of $1.3 billion in all planned for a series of road upgrades that are due for completion by 2020, of which this project forms a part.