The companies have been invited to submit their final bids for the second round of tender.
Eight bidders have entered the second round of the tender for construction of the Pelješac Bridge, reports Večernji List on March 11, 2017.
In the first round of the tender, for which the deadline for submission of bids was 2 December, the Croatian Roads public company received 12 bids for participation in the project. After review and evaluation of the applications, bidders which did not meet technical, legal and financial conditions were sent notices that they will not enter the second round, while those who did pass have been invited to submit their financial bids.
However, bidders who did not make it to the second round have the right to appeal. Of the four which have been eliminated, one bidder submitted an appeal to the State Commission for Supervision of Public Procurement Procedures on 7 March. While the appeal is pending, the whole bidding process for construction of the Pelješac Bridge will be on hold.
The names of companies that have submitted bids and which have been invited to the second round have not been made public, given that, according to the Law on Public Procurement, information about potential candidates in restricted public procurement procedure are secret. The procedure of submission of final bids in the second round will commence only after the appeal is ruled on.
After the financial bids in the second round are received, evaluated and verified, Croatian Roads will be able to choose the best offer. However, losing bidders will again be able to file an appeal to the State Commission. Until that potential appeals are resolved, it will not be possible to sign a contract with the contractor. Therefore, it is realistic to expect that the name of the winning bidder for the Pelješac Bridge will be known in the autumn.
Estimated value of the construction works for the bridge and access roads is 1.75 billion kuna. The large number of applications demonstrates that there is great interest among construction companies from all over the world for this project.
Along with the tender for the construction of the bridge that will connect the southernmost part of Croatia with the rest of the country, documentation is being prepared for the final submission of the project to the European Commission for its co-financing from EU funds.
