The designer’s assessment of the value of the Jesenice railway station upgrade project was too low, and it is also the entire logistics hub, not just the railway station, the audit of the Austrian company IKK pointed out. The Directorate of Infrastructure of the Republic of Slovenia was recommended to negotiate with the providers, as the re-announcement of the tender could increase the final price even more.
“The designer’s estimate of the costs of the station upgrade project is too low and does not reflect the current market prices in Austria and Germany,” at today’s press conference in Ljubljana, the results of the audit were summarized by an Austrian infrastructure expert Franz Lücklerwho participated in the preparation of the final report.
He emphasized that the project is much more than just upgrading the railway station, as it is a very extensive logistics hub. According to him, the costs, which are already basically higher in railway infrastructure projects than in others, are suitable for this. “Certainly, Slovenia needs such a hub,” he pointed out.
He recommended the Directorate for Infrastructure to take the received offers from potential contractors as a starting point for negotiations with them. Certain items in the tender documentation could have been designed better, he estimated. “I know from experience that the re-announcement of tenders leads to a 10-15% increase in costs,” he said.
According to the Minister of Infrastructure, the audit is Alenka Bratušekwhich she ordered, confirmed that the project is necessary and justified in the planned scope. She agreed that its naming may not have been a fortuitous one, as it is indeed a wider hub.
Jure Klobučar
Public presentation of the revision of the Jesenice railway station upgrade project.
She will now present the audit findings to the coalition partners and the government. She reminded that Slovenia obtained EUR 56.5 million in European funds from the Connecting Europe Facility for the project. “This is not money that just belongs to Slovenia, but with each project we apply to the tender separately and each specific project receives money separately. So if this money were not invested in the project we are implementing in Jesenica, it would be lost for Slovenia ,” she said.
The revision announcement in April followed the announcement of a price increase for the project, which sparked a storm of reactions. In 2022, the estimated value of the project was 81 million euros, the final estimated value of the construction works at the time of the announcement of the public contract rose to 137 million euros based on taking into account inflation and the state of the market, and the most favorable offer is 170 million euros including tax.
Representatives of the Ministry of Infrastructure and the directorate justified the price increase by, among other things, the fact that, when obtaining project conditions and approvals, the need for the construction of additional manipulative tracks, a new underpass and a bridge became apparent. They emphasized that it is a complex project that will bring many benefits in railway transport and for Jesenice.
This was repeated today by the head of the railway investment sector at the infrastructure directorate Dejan Jurkovič. As he pointed out, the value assessment is also based on four to five years old prices, i.e. inflation is not sufficiently taken into account. “It should be noted that price growth in this area is above average,” he supplied them.
Source: svet24.si
