The General Port Administration (AGP) awarded Emepa the maintenance of buoys, beacons and spars of the trunk waterway.

 

The General Administration of Ports (AGP) awarded Emepa the maintenance of buoys, beacons and spars of the trunk waterway to the company Emepa.

 

Emepa was in charge of the signaling and beaconing tasks during the 25 years of Hidrovía SA’s contract, in which it participated in a 50% of the partnership with the Belgian dredging company Jan De Nul.

 

In this “short” bidding process, unlike the dredging process, there were no major problems, probably because there were not so many important interested parties: only two, Emepa and the transitory union between Pentamar and Sade.

 

In spite of the obvious fact that Emepa had the best technical background, the Government went ahead with the formality of bidding. Moreover, its budget was also lower than that of its only competitor: just over US$ 17 million, including contingencies.

 

However, the sister dredging bid suffered multiple judicial and political setbacks, and was frustrated for not having been able to offer a folder with more than one qualified technical proposal. This argument did not apply to the beaconing tender, which had only two bidders compared to the four submitted in the dredging tender.

 

Now the PGA is working against the clock for a new bidding process, while Jan De Nul continues to be contracted to guarantee the depths in a navigation system stressed by a record low water level.