Constructors resort to high court action over Peljeski bridge award

The losing contractors in the Peljeski bridge and access roads tender are to file complaints against the state procurement authority DKOM in the Croatian High Court. DKOM rejected their previous complaints so Astaldi, Ictas and Strabag are independently seeking to delay the signing of the contract. The European consortia each bid between €343-349 million while the winning bid by China Road and Bridges Corporation (CRBC) was around €208 million. DKOM contends that there had been no violation of the tender rules and that the submission of unsustainably low prices was an issue for the European Commission. Potential legal delays to the project due to the court action may also jeopardise funding from the European Commission which is supplying 85% of the projects costs or €357 million through the EU's Cohesion Policy funds to build the bridge.