Chile’s main freight port at San Antonio is looking for a contractor to build a 4km-long breakwater for a planned $4bn expansion, the Latin News website reports.

The $1.5bn breakwater project includes new roads, a railway to a local quarry, and dredging 14 million cubic metres of seabed.

San Antonio is in the Valparaíso region west of the capital, Santiago.

The head of the port operating company EPSA, Eduardo Abedrapo, said in a presentation in the capital that 34 companies had expressed interest in the project.

He said the deadline for prequalification submission would be August, with the full tender to be published in September and a winner named in the first quarter of next year.

The breakwater will eventually be followed by two new terminals.

Business website BNAmericas reports that a tender for Terminal 1, named “Terminal Mar”, is expected to be launched in 2030.

Abedrapo said demand projections suggest the port will need a second terminal in the second half of the 2040s.

In addition to the expansion, EPSA is looking for a concessionaire to take over in 2030.