The almost centenary dream of a submerged tunnel linking the cities of Santos and Guarujá will start to come true on September 5, when the envelopes with groups and consortium proposals that will participate in the construction, operation and maintenance of the work, with an estimated cost of R $ 6.8 billion will be opened.
By projections, when the work is delivered in 2029, the crossing today made by the ferries, which can take more than an hour – both by demand and traffic ships – will be performed in less than two minutes.
O Infomoney It traced a panorama with the history of the project, the details of the work and the conditions of the auction. Law below:
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Dream of almost 100 years
The first idea of a tunnel linking Santos and Guarujá (until 1926 a district) came in 1927, in drawings by architect Enéas Marini, inspired by the work that started that year in New York, under the Hudson River, which would become the today’s classic Holland Tunnel, which connects Manhattan Island with Jersey City. According to the Santista Memory Blog, the project was adaptable to the traffic of any vehicle, whether they have trams, buses, cars and even animal -drive carts. The same architect made a similar project to connect Rio de Janeiro to Niterói, under the Guanabara Bay.
1940s
It was not until the 1940s that the original idea was updated: in the elaboration of the Santos Regional Plan, which aimed to modernize the port and develop the region, engineer Francisco Prestes Maia included mobility works that had the tunnel as an option. In 1948, a proposal came to build a lifted bridge, an idea that was also shelved.
More recent plans
The work of the tunnel was once again considered at the turn of the 1970s to the 1980s, but the foreign debt times in the heights and scarcity of international credit have once again left projects only on paper. Subsequently, there were promises to resume plans by the São Paulo State Government, both in the management of José Serra and in the administrations of Geraldo Alckmin, but the execution was still postponed.
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Now are you going?
The partnership between the federal and state governments, with the project included in the new PAC, took the work from Campos of Promises and Discussions for a defined strategy. In addition to the allocation of resources and negotiations for proper environmental licenses, in April, Port and Airport Minister Silvio Costa Filho and Governor Tarcísio de Freitas held meetings in Europe to present the project to foreign investors. Groups such as the Portuguese Mota-Engil and the Dutch Ballast Nedam and Tec Tunnel were contacted, with experience in this type of construction. A visit to the Fehmanbelt tunnel, which will be 18.1 kilometers long and is under construction under the Baltic Sea, was also made. Later, in May, the minister also presented the project for Chinese investors during President Lula’s visit to the country.
How will the work be?
Brazil’s first submerged tunnel will be 1.5 km long, of which 870 meters will be immersed at a depth of 21 meters, with three direction ranges, one exclusive for the light rail (VLT) vehicle, as well as accesses for pedestrians and cyclists. The stretch will connect the regions of Outeirinhos and Macuco, in Santos, to the Vicente de Carvalho neighborhood, in Guarujá. The project mobility study concluded that the most appropriate location of the tunnel is in the center of the channel, meeting the region’s logistics needs.
The structure will consist of six precast concrete modules that will be built in a dry dock. Then the modules will be “dipped” in the water for the sealing and impermeability test. Once ready, the parts will be transported by fluctuation to the place where the tunnel will be installed at the bottom of the ocean bed. The venture should generate 9,000 direct and indirect jobs.
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How is the crossing today?
Currently, the crossing is made by ferry or about 40 km of highway. More than 21,000 vehicles cross the two margins daily using small boats (Catraias) and the ferries, as well as 7.7 thousand cyclists and 7.6 thousand pedestrians. The ferry crossing is considered the largest in the world in number of vehicles transported, with a daily average of 14,000 vehicles and 28,000 people. Only for comparison: When Engineer Enéas Marini proposed the first project of the tunnel, he estimated that about 268,000 people had crossed the estuary between Santos and Itapema throughout 1926. In the last summer operation, between December 2024 and March 2025, the ferry system transported about 5 million vehicles and pedestrians.
What will the auction look like?
The concessionaire – company, group or national or international consortium – that overcomes the event will be responsible for the construction, operation and maintenance of the tunnel, in a 30 -year contract. The judgment criterion is the highest discount percentage of the maximum public consideration, considering the annual amount of R $ 438.380 million, on the base date of March 2025. After the republication of the notice, in June, the auction model began to allow, in case of a tie, bids in both public consideration and public contributions, to stimulate more competition and search for more proposals and search for more proposals advantageous to the public power. The delivery of the envelopes is scheduled for September 1, at 10am, and the opening of the bids will take place on September 5, at 16h.
The value of the base toll rate to be practiced in the operation will be R $ 6.15 per user, also based on March 2025.
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(Sources: Ministry of Ports and Airports, Agência SP, State Government of S. Paulo, Codesp, Seesp and Blog Memory Santista)
