The tender price does not apply, the D35 to Ostrov is already almost a billion more expensive

The price for building a highway between Časy and Ostrov in the Pardubice region is constantly rising. For now, the state should pay 4 billion 162 million crowns for it. It is 929 million crowns more than the competitive price. MF DNES found this out from the public procurement gazette. In addition, it is probably not the final figure.

Even though the highway between Opatovice and Časy has been in use since 2021, and a year later the connecting section to Ostrov was opened, companies are still sending the Directorate of Roads and Highways to sign changes that gradually increase the price of the work.

“The need for these changes arose on the basis of specifying the volume of work actually carried out on the construction site during implementation,” states, for example, in the comment for the price increase during construction by more than 15 million crowns for the Časy-Opatovice section from last week, which is related to rehabilitation works.

More than eight hundred similar changes have already been approved in both sections. And more are added every month. Sometimes it’s just the little things that make the price even lower. But other times, the change will increase the final price by millions.

According to the Public Procurement Gazette, the cost of building the 12.6 kilometer long section between Opatovice and Časy gradually increased from 3,388 million crowns without tax to 3,791 million crowns.

In the case of less than fifteen kilometers from Časy to Ostrov, then from 3,233 million to 4,162 million, which is an increase in price by almost 29 percent.

According to the approved budget, the state transport infrastructure fund should pay more than eight hundred million crowns for both sections together this year. The construction of the highway between Časy and Ostrov was watched by the whole country due to an unusual maneuver in which the builders turned the future bridge over the corridor near the Uhersko railway station two years ago. After all, this is also one of the reasons that the General Director of the Directorate of Roads and Highways, Radek Mátl, justifies the price increase.

“I think turning the bridge at the Hungary railway station was the biggest problem. A lot of changes took place there, unfortunately the track cables were in completely different positions, the technical solution had to adapt to that. The railway line also had to be relocated, which originally looked like it would not interfere with the construction of the highway,” said Mátl.

The ŘSD is proceeding according to the law, which allows the price of the work to be increased by up to 30 percent in the case of changes that could not be foreseen or were necessary for the execution of the work. In addition, for such a large event, he has the opportunity to make changes that do not fall into the first category, up to a limit of 147 million crowns.

Mátl said that in the case of the Časy-Ostrov section, the price was also raised by the fact that the ŘSD pushed for faster completion of the work. “In this section, the acceleration itself was reflected in the price, because we shortened the construction time. There were many aspects in terms of changes and price increases. On the other hand, we stayed within the legal limits,” said Mátl.

In 2019, MF DNES drew attention to the fact that the winner of the tender for the Ostrov-Časy section went very low with the price. At that time, the RSD announced a two-round competition in September 2016. It received offers from interested parties who met the conditions and went to the second round in October 2017. An association called Společnosti Eurovia + Metrostav + Swietelsky D35 Časy-Ostrov then submitted only the third lowest offer (3.2 billion ), which, however, was only 65% ​​of the estimate of the road workers. They originally valued the contract at 4.9 billion.

However, a long period of time has passed since the beginning of the selection of the builder after the start, during which the prices in the market have changed. At the previously offered low prices, the companies could hardly build the work with the expected profit. The same group of companies – namely Eurovia, Metrostav and Swietelsky – were to build the D11 highway outside Hradec at the same time and refused to start the work due to the low price. It ended up negotiating more extra money with the Ministry of Transport. Nothing like that happened in the case of the D35.