Spanish engineering has reached another international milestone. The consortium led by ACS and FCC has won a bidding contest to build the Metro de Lima’s number 2 line, and manage it for 35 years. This is the largest infrastructure project ever undertaken in Peru.

A consortium led by ACS and FCC, together with Impregilo and Ansaldo from Italy and Peru’s Cosapi, has won the contract to build the number 2 line for the Metro de Lima. This is the largest project ever put up for bid in Peru.

The contract includes the construction of 35 underground subway stations connected by 35 kilometers of tunnels. Building the line will create 3,000 jobs, and includes the associated superstructure and supplying rolling stock. The consortium will also install the necessary electromechanical equipment, rail systems and electrical power lines in order to operate the new line.

To win this contract ACS and FCC had to overcome stiff competition from Brazil’s giant Odebrecht, which was the other finalist. The government entity which organizes public bidding contests for infrastructure construction and management projects in Peru, ProInversión, finally chose to officially award the Spanish consortium this project, worth €3.9 billion or about $5.4 billion.

The number 2 line will cross Lima from east to west, from Ate all the way to Callao covering a distance of 27 kilometers. The last stop at Callao is where FCC is also carrying out construction work to modernize the town’s port facilities. Once completed the number 2 line is expected to cut travel times by up to 90 minutes. It currently takes two hours and twenty minutes to cover the entire distance by car. Including an 8 kilometer extension to reach the airport, the entire line will span 35 kilometers.

Construction work will begin in 2016. Segments of the line are expected to begin operating as of August, 2017.