The Spanish group OHLA must return one million euros ($4,494,630,000) for the failed Aeropuerto del Café in Colombia, which would be in the municipality of Palestina in Caldas, according to the Colombian arbitration court, which has resolved the conflict between the company and the Aerocafé Autonomous Heritage over the construction of the infrastructure.
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Although the arbitration court concluded that there was no breach by either party, it binds OHLA, currently controlled by the Mexican Amodio brothersto return half of the advance received, that million euros, in an award.
On July 18, 2022, Aerocafé announced the unilateral termination of the contract for the first phase of construction, according to a statement from the Colombian Ministry of Transportation, due to “multiple cases of non-compliance, delays in works and failed attempts to reach agreements that would allow the viability of the project” with the counterparty.
Previously, The infrastructure group had requested to suspend the contract alleging serious and repeated breaches of the contract, as well as fines imposed on the contractor.
Coffee Airport Works
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The lawsuit
The Colombian subsidiary of OHLA filed the arbitration, whose award indicates that “Neither of the parties can claim damages, nor demand the penalty clause, because if both parties have breached the contract, neither of the parties to the legal transaction is in default and, therefore, neither is liable for damages.”
OHLA claimed 46.494 million Colombian pesosjust over 10 million euros, and the Aerocafé Autonomous Assets 126,000 million pesos, around 28 million euros.
In June 2021, the infrastructure group (then called OHL) won the contract for 31.9 million euros for the first of three phases of the construction project for the Aeropuerto del Café, in the Department of Caldas, declared of strategic importance for the country and with a total budget of 118 million euros.
The Coffee Axis, which also has the Coffee Highway, is one of the most important economic centers in the country and connects Manizales, Pereira and Armenia, passing through the departments of Caldas, Risaralda, Quindío and Valle del Cauca.
The project began in 1977 after it was discovered that at an altitude of 1,600 metres there was a formation that would allow for the construction of airport infrastructure.
OHLA has been present in Colombia for more than fifteen years, as well as in Latin America as a whole, one of its geographic reference areas, where it has been carrying out important infrastructure projects for more than 45 years.
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EFE
