ZAGREB, January 24, 2018 - The Minister of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure, Oleg Butković, said on Wednesday that two complaints that had been filed regarding the selection of the contractor for the Pelješac Bridge project would slow down the entire process by up to a month and a half, and that upon the completion of the appeals procedure, a contract would be signed with the contractor.
"The complaints will slow down the start of work on the project for a while. This is the most important project in Croatia, a major project co-financed by the European Commission and the State Commission deals with such procedures faster than with others. I believe that after the Hrvatske Ceste road operator responds to the complaints, the matter will be resolved within a month to a month and a half," Butković said in an interview with Croatian Radio.
The Hrvatske Ceste public company said on 12 January that of the three bids submitted for the first stage of construction work on the Pelješac Bridge it had selected the one by the Chinese consortium China Road and Bridge Corporation, worth 2.08 billion kuna, not including VAT.
The State Commission for the Supervision of Public Procurement Procedures on 22 January received a complaint by the Austrian company Strabag against Hrvatske Ceste's decision to choose the Chinese company to do the work on the Pelješac Bridge. According to media reports, the third bidder - a consortium comprising Italy's Astaldi and Turkey's IC Ictas - has appealed against the decision as well.
The Pelješac Bridge, which is to connect the southern Dalmatian peninsula of Pelješac with the mainland and thus connect Dubrovnik-Neretva County with the rest of the country, will facilitate the transport of people and goods throughout the year, notably during the peak tourist season. Vehicles will no longer be required to pass through a short coastal stretch of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina and wait two times for border inspection.
