1.- The Cancun local government will vote soon to approve or not the $200-million-peso loan for the beach rebuild project. 2.- Both Playa del Carmen and Cozumel governments have approved the loans. 3.- Cozumel environmentalists are opposed to others using sand from their sand bank out in the ocean. 4.- The bidding process was declared null and void because none of the companies fulfilled all of the qualifications required. 5.- New bid qualifications will be announced this week, supposedly on the 16th. 6.- Seems that one of the reasons that none of the companies involved qualified is that all of the proposals were in U.S. dollars and the approved proposal for the bidding process is in Mexican Pesos. With constantly varying exchange rates, no company wants to commit to payment in Mexican pesos when their expenses are in dollars. IMHO this is the deal breaker right now. 7.- The Environmental Impact Study has only just been submitted and is only about 5% through its processing stage which has a maximum finish date of July 1, 2009--UNLESS, there are complaints from anyone (Cozumeleños?) in which case it will have to be submitted to a public "consultation" which could set back the date even more.
The last bidding process between the companies to get the contract for rebuilding the beaches in Cancun, Cozumel and Playa del Carmen was declared null and void when it was discovered that none of the companies could fulfill all of the technical requisites. Here is new information about the new bidding process and other facts and figures and updated information: 1.- The original requirement was for a company that can move 75 thousand cubic meters of sand per day without disturbing navegation. 2.- The total amount of sand to move, spread and compact in the 151 working days of the project was 7 million cubic meters--a little over 6 million just for the Cancun beaches. (It was around 3 million the last time for Cancun in 2006.) 3.- They modified (lowered) the total amount of sand to be moved for the new technical project. 4.- The work consists of rebuilding of 11.1 kilometers of beach for Canún, 4.5 kilometers in Playa del Carmen and 1.5 kilometers en Cozumel. 5.- According to the project, the work has to be completed by August 29, 2009 in spite of holidays that make that target date "difficult" to achieve but then that is the problem of the company that "wins" the bidding process. 6.- The previous plan that failed required that the companies budget the beginning of the hurricane season into their proposal since there would be no additional payment for equipment downtime due to storms or hurricanes. (Not sure how you budget something like that!!) 7.- The specs also indicate the consistency, type and size of the sand to be used. The sand will be taken from 2 ocean sand banks located in Cozumel and between Isla and Cancun called “La Ollita”--the same one they used last time. 8.- The Cancun government is scheduled to vote tomorrow on approving a $230 million pesos budget for the work to be done. 9.- In the original program called “Rehabilitación y protección de las playas de Cancún, Playa del Carmen y Cozumel”, the following companies aprticipated: Dredging International NV, the group formed between Dragamex, CABA Servicios de Personal and Boskalis International BV, as well as Mexicana Dragados, Codralux, Van Oord Dredging and Marine Contractors BV and Consorcio Corporativo de Construcción en México, together with Jagovi Construcciones SA de CV. 10.- None of them fulfilled all of the terms or bases for the bidding as determined by the government agency in charge of transparency, the Secretariat of Tourism and the Electric Company.
Thanks for that synthesis of the news, now I don't have to sort it out. I wonder how they will get around the bidding in USD vs. in MXP issue.
I sure hope this gets passed and they get to work on the beaches! They sure aren't what they used to be!! Now just filled with big rocks and a HUGE drop off....... at least at the oasis were we hangout.
I think the approved budget being in pesos is a big big problem. We are talking about a contract for the next 10 years!
OK.. so would someone explain to me what exactly CFE has to do with this whole thing? Why hasn't the local government just looked into the cost of buying their own smaller "dredgers" and operating them year round like a lot of Florida counties do.... for the cost of doing this every few years its MUCH cheaper in the long run to have your own equipment and workers, and you can do preventative work year-round.... yes, it would take a bit longer to get the beaches back if they do it themselves.. but once they are in good order they can be kept that way and not go years without swimable beaches. Then again, I guess that would make far too much sense for them to ever consider... :roll:
That used to confuse me too but the CFE is a Federal government agency with a lot of engineering expertise it seems. They oversaw the last project of rebuilding. The fact that they are Federal takes things out of all the other local, state and business interests that all want their say and "participation" in the project. And, of course, other countries, States, counties and businesses rebuild beaches on an ongoing, regular basis all over the world. As far as why they don't do it like other places with more experience, well, that is a cultural mystery we see quite often. "We are soooo unique and our situation is sooo different." And "if it isn't my idea it isn't a good one." This coupled with a lack of experience (the only country I know of where the only requirement to be elected to an office is that you must absolutely, positively have NO experience in the job due to the "no-re-election" laws)and lack of governmental continuity from one administration to the next, means that each new administration starts out with a blank memory and has to start investigating each problem all over again leads to extremely slow progress on any particular issue. JHMO
Jim - You are on a roll! You just NAILED Mexico in one paragraph! Mexico has no institutional memory, you are totally right about that. I see the same in many Mexican orgs and businesses too. Everyone is always reinventing the wheel here, then they pat themselves on the back for their ingenuity. It boggles the mind. It wouldn't hurt to learn from your predecessors mistakes would it?
