Buenaventura’s works now have dates. Your cargo can’t wait until 2028

Buenaventura port congestion has been in the headlines for months, with long queues, blockades and full yards. The works meant to fix it are moving ahead with concrete dates, but almost nobody puts them in one place. This article puts them together: what is being built, what is already being corrected at the yards, what is still missing and when it could arrive. Once the dates are on the table, you can decide what to do with your cargo.

The context matters. More than 36% of the country’s imports, in fact, depend on the port’s operation. Cargo also grew 16% to almost 24 million tons, and of the 130 kilometers of road between Buga and the port, 30 were still unfinished, with the first 10 as you approach Buenaventura being the most critical stretch. According to the Sociedad Portuaria Regional (the regional port company), there is no maritime congestion for container ships. In other words, the problem is on land.

What is already being built

On October 1, 2026, work began on the internal alternate road (vía alterna interna). It covers 10 kilometers: 3.5 of upgrades and 6.5 of new second carriageway, with a parking area for tractor-trailers. The Minister of Transport also mentioned a 20-hectare yard with room for about 350 tractor-trailers (mulas) and roughly two years to finish the dual carriageway.

That road is one section of the Buga-Buenaventura corridor, which shows 32.59% progress. Financial close for the last 35 kilometers was confirmed in 2025, and the planned completion date is February 2028. Since the project started in 2006, 2028 is the official target, not a guarantee.

The tunnels are the most delicate part. According to ANI, the national infrastructure agency, the project replaces the electromechanical equipment in the 17 existing tunnels, which add up to 9.3 kilometers, and also builds two new short tunnels of about 1.4 kilometers. The concessionaire estimated that the tunnel works would be in operation between late 2026 and early 2027. That is the company’s estimate, not a date set by ANI. Earlier, in early August, ANI and the concession opened almost 48 kilometers of rehabilitated road. In addition, on October 14 the minister reported that nine of the 21 functional units were unblocked, including the internal alternate road, and that the whole corridor is under construction.

What is already being corrected at the yards and the port

Operational measures are felt sooner than asphalt. For example, the government ordered continuous operation at container yards, the removal of empty containers from external depots and a daily record of movements on the Superintendence of Transport platform. The trucking association reported that empty containers’ time in port fell from 12 days in May to 8 in June.

After the August 10 earthquake, recovery has been uneven. In early September, container operations at SPRBUN had normalized, while TCBUEN still showed high yard utilization and restrictions on some empty container movements. Even so, the manager of the port company described operations as “flowing normally, but congested” because of the pending dual carriageway.

Dredging runs on a separate track

Today the channel is 12.5 meters deep in the inner bay and 13.5 in the outer bay. In March 2026, Invías, the national roads agency, presented the first-phase target: 16.5 and 17.5 meters. At that point the project was still in studies, environmental licensing and prior consultation (consulta previa), with the CONPES document pending, and no start date for the works had been published. Earlier dates had already slipped: in 2024 the plan was to tender by the end of 2025 and have the channel ready in the first half of 2027.

In short, this work determines how large the ships that arrive can be, not how long a truck takes to enter the port.

When Buenaventura port congestion could ease, according to the sources

No agency publishes a single normalization date. Instead, what exists are targets for each project:

• Existing and new tunnels: between late 2026 and early 2027, according to the concessionaire’s estimate.
• Internal alternate road with second carriageway: about two years from October 2026, according to the minister.
• Full Buga-Buenaventura dual carriageway: February 2028, a target set by ANI in 2025.
• Deepening dredge: no confirmed start date, because in March 2026 it was still in licensing and prior consultation.

In the meantime, which cargo can adapt to the market

Not every shipment can switch ports, and it shouldn’t. Three variables decide it: the cargo’s origin and/or final destination, how firm the delivery date is and which carrier the cargo is booked with.

If the cargo is headed to the Valle del Cauca, Buenaventura remains the logical choice because, of the 15.5 million tons moved out of Buenaventura in 2025, more than 7.6 million went to municipalities in the Valle.

Cargo going to or from Antioquia, the Coffee Region or Bogotá

On the other hand, the comparison changes. Puerto Antioquia opened on January 31, 2026, and CMA CGM added it to its PEX2 service with a first call scheduled for October 8, which adds only two transit days compared with Cartagena. The carrier estimates an average distance 43% shorter to Medellín and Bogotá than other northern terminals, and it also expects lower inland costs than through Buenaventura. Moreover, the port has contracts with Maersk, CMA CGM and MSC. After the earthquake, Atlantic coast operations were unaffected.

Still, the alternative is not free of friction: the trucking association identified 14 critical points on the road between the Aburrá Valley and Puerto Antioquia. For this reason, the decision is made with the specific cargo, not with averages. Once a shipment has room on those three variables, it moves from waiting to choosing.

If your cargo stays in Buenaventura

Fenix does not set shipping schedules, because they change with every blockade. The sector reported peaks from Thursday to Sunday and from Wednesday to Friday, with fewer trucks between 7:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. But in early September the corridor’s full nighttime closure between 8:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. was still in place, and those windows stopped being useful.

What stays stable is the way of operating. The recurring bottleneck is the appointments to return empty containers at one particular terminal, so it makes sense to coordinate the pickup of the full container and the return of the empty as a single operation, with documents ready before the vessel arrives. That daily coordination is part of the job of a freight forwarder present at the port.

Fenix has its own office in Buenaventura and also operates through Puerto Antioquia, Cartagena and Barranquilla, in FCL and LCL, for imports and exports. As a result, ports can be compared with your cargo on the table.

Choosing the right port for your next shipment