Companies from China and Europe are among the ten consortiums that have pre-qualified to bid on a project to bore a landmark US$1.5 Billion tunnel under the Andes mountains to connect Argentina and Chile.

The Agua Negra border crossing tunnel will connect Chile's north-central Coquimbo region with Argentina's San Juan province, both important mining areas.  Right now, the only route is the Agua Negra Paso, an unpaved rollercoaster of a mountain road over the high Andes Mountains that is closed whenever it snows in the winter.  Oh yeah, and it doesn't have guardrails separating vehicles from drops of hundreds of meters. 

Chile's public works ministry (MOP) says the tunnel replacing that high altitude nightmare would stretch almost 14 kilometers underneath, about a quarter of it in Chile and the rest in Argentina.  The ambitious project would likely take more than a decade to complete, according to Argentine Transport Planning Secretary German Bussi.

In the past, Italian and Spanish companies have dominated the market for major infrastructure projects in South America.  The Agua Negra Tunnel marks the first to draw serious interest from Asian companies, which have been expanding into Latin America and Africa at a dizzying pace.

Chile's public works minister Alberto Undurraga highlighted that "while in other parts (of the world) walls are being built, Chile and Argentina are building tunnels to get closer".

The project is expected to commence in September or October.