ZAGREB, April 13, 2019 - The State Commission for Supervision of Public Procurement Procedures (Dkom) decided on Friday to annul the state-owned Hrvatske Ceste (HC) road operator's decision to award the Greek company J&P Avax a contract to build the Pelješac Bridge access roads, ordering HC to pay 100,000 kuna within eight days to a group of bidders led by Austria's Strabag to cover their appeals procedure costs.
HC invited bids for the construction of said access road to the Pelješac Bridge on 9 March 2018, and decided on February 28 this year to award the contract to J&P Avax. Seven bids had been submitted, of which four were shortlisted, and Dkom found the one by J&P Avax to be the most favourable in financial terms.
Construction was expected to last 33 months. J&P Avax's offer was 464.9 million kuna before VAT.
One of the bidders was the Bosnian company Integral Inzenjering, which asked for 321.2 million kuna but was turned down after HC said the bid price was unusually low.
GP Krk and Euro-Asfalt offered 444.3 million kuna, Greece's Aktor asked for 464.6 million kuna, the Croatian branch of France's Colas asked for 521.9 million kuna, Strabag asked for 478.3 million kuna, while the China Road and Bridge Corporation, which is building the Pelješac Bridge, asked for 647.8 million kuna for said road section.
The section on which access roads to the bridge will be built is 12 kilometres long. HC's deadline for the completion of all works is 31 January 2022, the same deadline for the completion of works on all four stages of the complex project that will link southern Dalmatia with the rest of the country by road.
In mid-March, Strabag and Aktor lodged appeals against the choice of contractor for the Duboka-Šparagovići section. Earlier this month, Dkom dismissed Aktor's appeal because the company paid too little to instigate the appeals procedure.
As for Strabag's appeal, in which the company contested the legality of the bid evaluation process and the validity of J&V Avax's bid, Dkom found that it was well-grounded and granted Strabag's request that it be paid 100,000 kuna to cover the appeals procedure costs.
More news about Pelješac Bridge construction can be found in the Business section.
