🌉Public works· 2018-2024
Port viaduct: a private initiative with a single bidder
Saceem designed the project, was the only company to bid in the tender and won the work, which ended up costing US$ 135 million.
Figure published by the sources
Más de US$ 125 millones de inversión estatal al licitarse y US$ 135 millones de costo final (El Observador, 2018 y 2022)
Bodies involved
Ministerio de Transporte y Obras Públicas · Administración Nacional de Puertos
What it is
The viaduct over Montevideo's port waterfront is an elevated 1,800-metre structure, including a 160-metre arch bridge with six lanes, that separates heavy port traffic from city traffic and improves truck circulation to the docks. The work began as a private initiative: builder Saceem designed it and presented it to the State two years before the tender, according to El Observador. The process was run by the Ministry of Transport and Public Works together with the National Port Administration. Construction ran from June 2019 to December 2022.
What is questioned
On 14 June 2018 El Observador reported that a single company bid in the tender opened by the port authority — Saceem, the same firm that had designed and submitted the initiative — for a state investment of more than US$ 125 million, financed with the port authority's own resources and a Fonplata loan. The then head of the port authority, Alberto Díaz, explained that a commission would study whether the bid met the tender requirements, and noted that obstacles were unlikely given that Saceem itself had submitted the original proposal two years earlier. In March 2022 the Office of Planning and Budget reported that the work would require "a figure above 130 million dollars", with US$ 50 million contributed by Fonplata. At the opening, El Observador reported a cost of US$ 135 million. In July 2024, two years after inauguration, new works appeared on the viaduct; Saceem director Alejandro Ruibal attributed them to maintenance of the joints between spans, said it was foreseen in the original plan and stated: "There is no damage, nothing structural, nothing to worry about".
Why it matters to you
When a tender of more than US$ 125 million draws a single bidder, and that bidder is also the firm that designed the project, the State loses the price benchmark that competition provides. It does not imply illegality — private initiatives are allowed by law — but it does mean less room to negotiate.
Where it stands
The viaduct has been in service since 12 December 2022 and forms part of the road access to the port of Montevideo. The joint-maintenance work carried out in July 2024 was presented by the company as normal post-commissioning work on a structure with no precedent in the country, with an estimated duration of one month and as the last significant stage of its kind for several years. As of this file's closing (August 2026) there is no record of developments after July 2024.
This money does not travel through state procurement
The contract-by-contract cross-reference is not available for this file. The money is executed through a channel the public-procurement open data does not record, so putting a total here would be inventing it. The cited sources are, for now, the only public quantification.
Where it goes instead
Public-private partnerships (PPP), trusts, state-to-state contracts, direct agreements, or a state company's own budget. None of those channels publish their awards on the Compras Estatales portal.
The tender was run under the private-initiative regime of the transport ministry and the port authority: part of the file may appear in state procurement and part may not. The Fonplata-financed portion is executed through an agreement with that multilateral body.
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