The city of Salvador and the island of Itaparica have been linked for centuries by maritime routes across the Todos os Santos Bay. Situated at the opening of the Atlantic Ocean in Brazil’s north-eastern state of Bahia, the island is known for its natural beauty and ancestral traditions. In 2025, a decades-old plan to connect Salvador and Itaparica via a 12.4-kilometre bridge reached a turning point.
Conceived of in 1967, the Salvador-Itaparica bridge would become the largest in Latin America built over water. But it is only now that the project is finally making progress, with the completion in March of a soil survey, an essential stage for installing the pillars on land and at sea. Long sought by the state government, and subject to various delays in the past decade, the project has been revived by Chinese state-owned companies.
Details of the road system that will accompany the bridge have only just begun to be shared with Itaparica residents – and are already drawing criticism. Among those residents are traditional fishing and Black communities, as well as quilombola residents, who are members of communities formed by the descendants of enslaved African people.
Even the Bahia State Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPBA), an independent legal institution that defends the interests of society by monitoring compliance, has reportedly had trouble accessing up-to-date documents on the socio-environmental impacts of the project.
For thousands of people directly affected, the proposal remains a kind of shadow looming over them. “We only know what we see on TV,” says Antônio Salvador dos Santos, a retired radio broadcaster.
Thirty years ago, Santos bought a small plot of land on Itaparica, some 400 square metres where he planted lemons, tangerines, guavas and a dream: to spend the rest of his life there, with some space for his grandchildren to run around. He assumes his property now lies close to what will form the main access route to the future bridge. But no one has confirmed this to him.
“I know they moved the soil because I saw it in the newspaper, and there really was some movement back there,” he says, pointing towards the beach. “But nobody ever came to present the project, to talk about the route – neither the government nor the company. Maybe the access road goes through my house, and I don’t know about it.”
Santos says the only people who have come knocking on his door in recent months have been real estate speculators, interested in buying the land. “They’ve already offered 200,000 reais [USD 36,600], but I know it’s not worth all that. In other words, it’s something to be wary of,” he adds. Santos says that land speculation is putting pressure on the island, which is still home to preserved areas of the Atlantic Forest and a rich biodiversity.
Slow crossing
At 246 square kilometres, Itaparica is one of Brazil’s largest sea islands. In the centre of Todos os Santos Bay, the island’s north-eastern side faces Salvador – Bahia’s state capital – while its south-western point is connected to the mainland by the 665-metre-long Funil bridge.
Those travelling from Salvador to the south of Bahia are faced with either a 150-kilometre drive around the bay, or a passage involving a ferry to Itaparica, before crossing the island to reach the state’s main artery, the BR-101 motorway, via the Funil. This bridge has become one of the main connections within the state.
But the condition of the ferry system, set up in 1970, is deteriorating. Dialogue Earth embarked on this 50-minute journey and witnessed obsolete terminals and ageing boats with unusable toilets. Furthermore, during periods of high demand, the queue of cars for the ferry often exceeds four hours.
The Bahian government has been trying to get the bridge’s construction off the ground since 2009, when the project was officially launched. Since then, however, it has moved slowly, due to the difficulty of attracting investors, its technical complexity and environmental obstacles.
The bridge, the government argues, is fundamental for integrating different regions of Bahia, as well as boosting tourism to the state’s southern coast. It says the work would also help attract investment in sectors including industry, commerce and the property market.
A Chinese-led project
The construction of the Salvador-Itaparica project is now being carried out through a public-private partnership (PPP), in which the private company responsible is remunerated by both government contributions and tariffs paid by users.
In 2019, the Salvador-Itaparica Bridge Concessionaire (CPSI) tender was awarded to a consortium of two Chinese state-owned enterprises: the China Railway 20th Bureau Group Corporation (CRCC20) and the China Construction Communications Company (CCCC).
Since the 2010s, China has played a leading role in major infrastructure projects in Latin America, including Brazil, through loans and the local operations of its state-owned companies. In recent years, however, investments of this type have fallen. The Salvador-Itaparica bridge bucks this trend: two Chinese giants leading a major PPP.
Tulio Cariello, from the Brazil-China Business Council, says Chinese interest in Brazil persists, but factors such as the Covid-19 pandemic and China’s economic downturn have reduced the volume of foreign investment.
“Brazil has infrastructure and logistics bottlenecks. China has money and competitive companies. So, there will always be interest,” Cariello adds. “Sometimes, what these companies don’t have are good projects that are worth investing in for the long term. They certainly realise that the bridge project has potential.”
In 2020, a BRL 7.6 billion (USD 1.4 billion) contract was signed with the consortium for the construction and operation of the bridge system. The designated public contribution is BRL 1.5 billion. However, the global rise in construction costs caused by Covid-19 led both the government and consortium to lobby for contract revisions. In February this year, the Bahia court of auditors authorised contract amendments to the project’s costs.
This revised agreement, signed in June, also added another year to the construction period and cut a year from the concession period. As a result, the value of the contract fell to BRL 6.9 billion but the public contribution figure more than doubled to BRL 3.7 billion. In addition, the state will pay the franchisee to run the completed project via regular instalments over 29 years, totalling BRL 5.1 billion. This brings the project’s total cost to the public purse to approximately BRL 8.8 billion (USD 1.6 billion).
One of the original companies in the consortium, CRCC20, will now be replaced by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), which belongs to the same group. It will work alongside CCCC. All are Chinese state-owned companies. In a statement to Dialogue Earth, the CPSI assured that this replacement would not affect the management of the consortium.
As well as the bridge, the project includes roadworks in Salvador and Itaparica. Among them is the Variante, a new 18-kilometre motorway that would receive traffic from the Salvador-Itaparica bridge, cutting directly across the middle of the island to then join an existing road before the Funil bridge. It is from this set of roadworks that the main questions arise.
‘Worse than the bridge is the road’
Variations of this statement about the Variante road were shared with Dialogue Earth by eight Itaparica residents: fishers, traders, quilombolas, Indigenous people and shellfish gatherers, all born and living on the island.
There are fears regarding the route of the road, which will cut through areas that host the Atlantic Forest, mangroves, wetlands and wildlife refuges.
“We make our living from the sea, because there is this forest, these rivers, which are interconnected with our mangroves. A road with heavy vehicles in the middle of it is a tragedy,” says Rafael Carvalho, a filmmaker and fisher, and the president of the Itaparica Association of Residents, Fishermen and Shellfish Gatherers. “This is where the estuaries and sacred ancestral spaces are,” adds Carvalho, who is a member of the Indigenous Tupinambá community.
The local trader and shellfish gatherer Rita de Cássia dos Santos shares these concerns. She says her mother raised her among the mangroves, recalling how she used to emerge “loaded with oysters”. Santos says it is harder to find oysters today, due to urbanisation. “If they move [the road] there, it’s over,” she warns.
Isaías Conceição is a former fisher who now owns a bar on Itaparica’s Baiacu waterfront, where much of the island’s fishing activity is concentrated. “Everything here is a nursery,” he says. “Everyone knows that our springs are on this side [of the coast].”
The preliminary licence for the bridge’s construction, granted in 2016 and renewed in 2022, was based on an environmental impact study and the resulting report (EIA/Rima), a mandatory step for licensing such projects. The environmental data for this study was collected between 2013 and 2014. The study flagged impacts for Itaparica that included damage to its protected areas, such as the Baiacu Ecological Park and the Itaparica Island Ecological Reserve.
In an opinion finalised in October 2024, the Bahia State Public Prosecutor’s Office warned of flaws in the EIA. For example, a lack of clarity regarding the construction work, which could result in unforeseen or poorly assessed socio-environmental impacts. Furthermore, it points out that the environmental data used in the study will be at least 16 years old by the time the bridge is completed.
Dialogue Earth spoke to Cristina Seixas, a Bahia state prosecutor who has been following the project for more than a decade: “We’ve asked for updated data and the project plans many times, but we’ve had no response. I’m very worried, because now they’re seeking the implementation licence, but the way it is, there’s no way this project can go ahead.
“It’s not just a bridge, it’s a system that affects Salvador, the island and dozens of towns.”
In response, the CPSI says complementary EIA/Rima analyses have been made, including a forest inventory, consultations with communities and an assessment of conservation areas. The group says its studies were validated by the authorities and form the basis of the project’s basic environmental plan. The plan is another mandatory step in the licensing process, designed to outline the mitigatory and compensatory measures in place for environmental impacts.
Dialogue Earth requested access to the project’s basic environmental plan, but received no response.
Dialogue Earth consulted Bahia state’s civil secretary, Afonso Florence, who is monitoring the project for the government. He acknowledges that the impact studies and mitigation proposals need to be updated, and does not rule out changing the route of the bypass.
“We’re going to resume analysing all the considerations, whether from the communities or from the public prosecutor’s office, improve the conditions and the mitigation plan to make the project better, more robust and more sustainable,” says Florence.
Lack of prior consultation
In March, the Bahia state government published an ordinance with guidelines for the public consultation. This is expected to take place across 60 days from the first public hearing.
The concessionaire claims the relevant communities were consulted. However, public meetings with the local population only began on 16 June. According to local leaders, the project is not yet compliant with the International Labour Organization’s Convention 169. This agreement, to which Brazil is a signatory, guarantees traditional populations the right to free, prior and informed consultation and consent on any initiative that affects their territories and ways of life.
FPIC is about allowing people to give or withhold consent for projects that may affect them. Its main and original focus is Indigenous peoples, but it is also considered best practice for local communities of all kinds. FPIC is enshrined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the International Labour Organization’s Convention 169.
After just two meetings, the process is already facing criticism. “They’re calling this a prior consultation, but it needs to be free and informed, and respect the community’s own timeline,” says Carvalho. “They come into the territory, take a few people and hold meetings in private spaces. There’s no public notice, and we don’t have access to the schedule. We do not accept this kind of consultation.”
It seems like the island is just a shortcut between Salvador and the interior of the state, but we’re the ones impactedMoisés dos Palmares, Candomblé member of Terreiro do Silêncio
The Quilombo do Tereré is one of the cultural and religious African-descendent communities of Itaparica that is threatened by evictions, violation of its sacred sites, demolitions and environmental degradation. That is according to an impact study of the Salvador-Itaparica project that was commissioned by the government itself, and later accessed by The Intercept Brasil, a news outlet.
Candomblé
An African-Brazilian religion that emerged among the enslaved African communities of Brazil during the 19th century
A native of the island, Moisés dos Palmares is a Candomblé member of Terreiro do Silêncio, a religious space within the Quilombo do Tereré. He questions the deadline for the ordinance: “There are hundreds of traditional communities on the island … is this process going to be completed in 60 days?”
Basic services on the island “are already terrible”, according to Palmares. “In the summer, running out of water and electricity is routine. We don’t have basic sanitation. With the bridge, the island will become another neighbourhood of Salvador, but where’s the infrastructure? It seems like the island is just a shortcut between Salvador and the interior of the state, but we’re the ones impacted.”
Without mentioning a deadline, secretary Florence says Bahia state and federal public prosecutors are discussing a conduct adjustment agreement. It is hoped this agreement will overcome pending issues, such as free, prior and informed consent, and the commissioning of additional impact studies. According to Florence, the consultations will be carried out in compliance with the International Labour Organization’s Convention 169.
Impacts for Salvador
For Paulo Ormindo, an architect, urban planner and former Federal University of Bahia professor, one of the least debated impacts of this project is mobility in Salvador. The city is home to 2.4 million people and already has serious traffic problems and public transport access issues. According to Ormindo, the capital is not ready to absorb the increased flow of vehicles that the bridge will bring. He warns it risks a “road collapse”.
Ormindo also says the bridge will expand Salvador’s metropolitan axis, which he thinks could increase the demand for services to a level that the city’s infrastructure cannot currently manage: “Itaparica will become an urban extension of Salvador, in addition to the other cities that will be closer, and the impact of this has not been planned for.”
Ormindo is advocating for a road-rail system around the bay instead. It would bypass the island and connect to the road system after the Funil bridge, and allow for cargo to be transported by rail.
The concessionaire argued to Dialogue Earth that the project will boost the economies of more than 250 municipalities in Bahia, which will benefit more than 70% of the state’s population. “This is a project that will improve logistics, facilitating the transport of cargo and people, reducing costs and travelling time, and increasing competitiveness by creating new logistics corridors,” it adds.
Although the Todos os Santos crossing is recognised as a bottleneck for Bahia’s economy by both its residents and government, the project’s critics argue that overcoming this obstacle should not entail ignoring those who live in the region.
“We need to have a future, but we’re being expelled from our own territory,” says Carvalho. “The bridge may come to pass, but we will resist.”
