The Montcada burial undergoes a new review

The bidding for the works to bury the tracks in Montcada i Reixac has become a never-ending story.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
22 May 2023 Monday 22:58
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The Montcada burial undergoes a new review

The bidding for the works to bury the tracks in Montcada i Reixac has become a never-ending story. The railway infrastructure administrator (Adif) has commissioned Geocontrol engineering, as an independent expert, to analyze and assess two of the four offers submitted whose economic proposal has been declared reckless. That is, that its budget is so below the rest that it raises doubts about its viability.

This is a review commissioned to an external agent, something very unusual on the part of Adif, which comes after the works went out to public tender in November for 621 million euros after the appeal filed by the National Construction Confederation in March of last year, which forced the paralysis of the tender for half a year.

The new assessment will delay the start of work for a few more months, although it is not yet known how long the procedure will take. Even less if later there are challenges and appeals by some of those involved.

The two offers that Geocontrol will study will be temporary business unions (UTE) made up of Ohla-Sacyr-Acciona-Rubau and Dragados-Tecsa-Acsa-San José. Both have already presented the documentation justifying the feasibility of their proposal.

The joint venture that submitted the highest offer is the one made up of Ferrovial, Comsa and FCC. In turn, it is the one that obtained the highest technical score. In this regard, the offer from Ohla-Sacyr-Acciona-Rubau is very close, but the economic envelope presented excludes it. Sources from the sector see in this move by Adif a maneuver to try to prevent a contract of this magnitude from ending up in the hands of Ferrovial just when it has just moved its headquarters to the Netherlands, since we are talking about one of the largest public works awards in recent years and the most important of those that Adif has in its hands.