Tunnel between Santos and Guarujá to have construction site installed by February with Lula and Tarcísio

The Santos–Guarujá Tunnel will be 1.5 km long, with 870 meters immersed beneath the navigation channel (Maurício Martins/AT)

The signing of the concession contract for the immersed Santos–Guarujá Tunnel with Mota-Engil Latam Portugal S.A., the winner of the auction, and the symbolic installation of the construction site will take place between January 28 and February 10 of next year. The forecast was announced this Friday (12) by the president of the Autoridade Portuária de Santos (APS), Anderson Pomini.

Following the standard procedure, the contract was initially scheduled to be signed on January 8, but the company requested a 20-day extension for bureaucratic reasons (documentation), moving the date to January 28. However, it may be postponed by a few more days to align with the schedules of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicanos).

“The idea is to align the date with the anniversary of the Porto de Santos (February 2) and with the President’s agenda. He (Lula) is reviewing it together with the minister (of Ports and Airports, Silvio Costa Filho) and also with the Governor’s agenda. It is important that everyone be present at this event, which is historic and symbolic for all of us”, Pomini states.

On the same date, 50 housing units in Parque da Montanha, in Vila Edna, Guarujá, will be handed over to residents of Prainha, an area affected by the tunnel works.

Construction site The main construction site, where the so-called dry dock is planned to be built — where the concrete tunnel modules to be immersed will be manufactured — will be located in the Prainha area, in Vicente de Carvalho, toward the area known as Linhão, in Guarujá. In the Linhão region, the Guarujá tunnel portal and roadway realignments will also be built. The land is located between Prainha and Praça 14 Bis.

Although the company, according to Pomini, has flexibility to choose other locations, this area was the most suitable in an initial assessment. The APS president argues that the area is already vacant, belongs to the Port, and is close to the navigation channel.

“There is Santos Brasil there, and we have (next to it) Prainha, with those irregular dwellings, stilt houses. And then the so-called Linhão. The construction site will be installed there, below Linhão. However, the projection of the dry dock construction advances exactly over Prainha, where families currently live.”

For this reason, he says, relocating those families is essential so the area can receive the construction of the modules, which will remain ready while awaiting installation on the seabed.

Pomini changes his stance The president of APS, Anderson Pomini, has changed his position regarding the restrictions involving the auction of the Container Terminal (Tecon) Santos 10, at the Saboó quay, in the Port of Santos. Previously an enthusiast of broad participation by bidders, a view expressed on several occasions, he now considers the decision of the Tribunal de Contas da União (TCU), issued last Monday, to bar the participation of all shipping lines (ship owners) in the bidding process as “very appropriate.”

The Court of Accounts proposes a two-phase auction, as advocated by the Agência Nacional de Transportes Aquaviários (Antaq). However, it imposes stricter restrictions than those proposed by the agency in the first phase, which excluded only companies that already operate terminals in Santos. The Ministério de Portos e Aeroportos (MPor) has already stated that it will comply with what was established by the TCU. The auction is scheduled for March.

Pomini recalls that the matter was the subject of extensive and lengthy debate. For this reason, there is no need for further discussions. “Antaq presented the model, and it is the regulatory agency with the authority to do so. MPor defended the same model, with restrictions, to prevent concentration within the market itself. The Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Econômica (Cade) also expressed itself in this direction, as did the Port, and now the TCU has validated the legal framework by a vote of six to three. It seems to me that this is the best model”, he comments.

In July, Pomini told A Tribuna that “the greater the number of competing bidders for this concession, the higher the concession fee and the greater the potential for revenue collection for the Port of Santos”, explaining that higher values would result from an open auction.

Possible legal challenges The president of APS, Anderson Pomini, nevertheless notes that this format allows for possible legal challenges, with any company that feels harmed being able to seek recourse through the courts.

On the other hand, he considers the matter to be inherent to the market and already exhaustively addressed. “More than five writs of mandamus have been filed, and the issue has already been exhausted in the Judiciary. Therefore, I believe that the timetable for holding this auction will be met in March and that the Port of Santos will be able to effectively move forward with the construction of this terminal, definitively occupying an area that for many years has had no cargo or only temporary cargo”, he projects.