The National Land Transport Agency (ANTT) published on the last April 03rd, the Normative Instruction nº 19 to regulate Accredited Inspection Bodies in carrying out inspections of projects, budgets and engineering works done within the scope of concession and sub-concession contracts for federal highways and railways. The aim of norm is to standardize the procedures and acts that originate from the contractual responsibilities of the concessionaires regarding the execution of the works foreseen in the concession. The norm will come into force on May 1st, 2023.
The Normative Instruction regulates the request, elaboration, presentation, appreciation, revision and acceptance of executive projects, budgets and engineering works to inspected by bodies accredited by the General Coordination of Accreditation of INMETRO under supervision of the Superintendencies of Road Infrastructure (Surod) and Railway Transport (Sufer) of the ANTT.
The use of fast tracking is now expressly permitted, as provided for in Resolution No. 6,000, of 2022, which authorizes the simultaneous carrying out of the study, the functional project, the preliminary project, the executive project, the budget, the statement of public utility, environmental licensing and inspection of the executive engineering project, as well as the work, expropriation, removal of interference and inspection of the engineering work. The form, scope, and moment of adoption of fast tracking is a decision, risk and responsibility of the concessionaire.
According to the Normative Instruction, the inspection of projects and engineering works of concession contracts for federal highways and railroads aims, among others, to verify the completeness of studies and projects, to assess compliance with contractual requirements, laws, regulations and applicable technical standards, to assess the adherence of executive projects and engineering works to quality, safety, traffic, operation and sustainability requirements, as well as to ensure predictability, standardization and speed in the technical evaluation.
The executive projects and budgets that have already obtained an inspection certificate issued by an accredited body will have their analysis prioritized by the ANTT. It is observed, still, that the executive project will be considered tacitly accepted by ANTT in case the agency remains silent and does not analyze the request within the term period, to be defined in another normative act to be issued in the next 45 days.
The costs, deadlines and responsibilities related to hiring the accredited inspection body will be exclusively borne by the concessionaires, with the redefinition of the economic-financial balance of the concession contract not being applicable.
Finally, the Instruction establishes that all rules stated in the concession and sub-concession contracts, as well as a hierarchically superior norms, will prevail in case of divergence with the Instruction.
The performance of the Accredited Inspection Bodies must be detailed within 45 days, through normative acts to be prepared by the competent Superintendencies.
Some sectors of the new federal government have advocated greater legal certainty in order to guarantee more private investment in infrastructure works. The recent ANTT regulation seems to come with this intention.
