AECOM was involved in this $2 billion turnkey project, the largest ever completed by a single contractor, including development of a 15-million-ton-per-year surface coal mine, an 87-mile-long mine-to-port railroad and a new seaport built in a rugged and isolated area of Colombia in the early 1980s.

The largest coal mining operation in Latin America, El Cerrejón was developed by a joint venture between the Colombian state organization, Carbones de Colombia SA (Carbocol), and Intercor, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil Corp.

The project originally was estimated to cost $2.1 billion but, because of efficiencies developed by AECOM, the project was completed for $1.8 billion.