Chile’s concessionaires look to enhance reputation among communities

Chilean infrastructure concessionaires are looking to bolster their reputation among communities and will invest 22.6mn UFs (an index-linked unit, US$877mn) in the Santiago metropolitan region to build new parks, improve security, clean up trash near highways and install anti-noise panels, among other measures.  

“It’s very important for us, and that helps us to build a reputation. We're also interested in making people see that what they pay in tolls also goes towards satisfying neighbors,” Leonardo Daneri, head of concessionaires association Copsa, told BNamericas after the presentation of the Buen Vecino (Good Neighbor) program.

Of 76 related projects in the metropolitan region, 44 have already been awarded and the remaining 32 are being tendered, the public works ministry (MOP) said in a release. 

“This plan takes care of solving deficiencies that previous public works had. Now, new tenders are effectively incorporating these solutions from the start,” public works minister Jessica López said during the same event. 

For example, the second concession for route 68 (US$1.4bn), the main highway between Santiago and port city Valparaíso and which is in the awarding stage, will include road safety works as a result of preliminary conversations with neighbors. 

MOP’s concessions office DGC plans to auction 17 concession contracts worth US$10.7bn this year. 

Despite the success of Chile’s concessions model in the past 30 years, the system has been criticized as users believe these investments have not truly benefited local communities and have resulted in collateral damage and, in the case of highways, unfair tolls. 

“When DGC says these complementary works mitigate damage, it admits that damage occurred. [Concessionaires] taking care of the damage seems very good to us, because a large proportion of concessionaires’ bad reputation comes from that,” Daneri said. 

López said putting concessionaires in charge of these tasks will also reduce pressure on municipalities. 

“There are some leftover plots of land from highway construction processes, and they have to be dealt with properly. This means for them to have infrastructure to serve the community, and also to be maintained by the concessionaire. Otherwise, it becomes a burden for municipalities,” the minister said.

On that front, Daneri told BNamericas that while areas under concessionaires’ jurisdiction are normally clean, peripheral areas under municipal control normally become filled with trash and the private operators are blamed for that.

“When concessionaires take care of that, with the corresponding payments, we will do a good job,” the Copsa head said.