Colombia’s state-controlled power-generation company Isagen announced this week it had finalized financing for a $1.74-billion, 820-MW hydroelectric plant under construction on the Sogamoso River in the Dept. of Santander. Isagen officials said they collected $813 million in loans from local banks to finance the project. In December 2009, a consortium led by the Italian firm Impregilo and including Colombian companies Conalvias and Tecnica Vial netted the $500-million, first-phase contract involving construction of a 190 meter-high, 300-m-long, concrete-faced, gravel-filled dam and underground power station. The plant is slated to go on line in 2014. Impregilo is already doing preliminary work for the dam, building two 870-m-long, 11-m- dia. diversion tunnels, along with access tunnels and roads to the power station.