Skopje May Pay Dear For Underground Bypass

While the city of Skopje planned to set aside 51 million euro for the important bypass, the lowest bidder, a Bulgarian-Macedonian consortium composed of Pons Troy Engineering, Gp Group and Urban Plan, has sought 66.9 million euro.

Another group of Bulgarian firms has offered to do the work for 69.8 million euro while a Bulgarian-Portuguese consortium sought 67.3 million euro.

The highest offer, of 90.1 million euro, came from a group of three Macedonian construction firms.

“The bids are higher than we expected but we have not considered yet the possibility of scrapping the tendering procedure again,” the City of Skopje told Balkan Insight.

The city plans to build the four-lane road with help from the government. In 2012 the two authorities signed an agreement to jointly finance the project.

But, last year, the city scrapped the first tendering procedure after receiving offers that were considerably more expensive than the planned 30 million euro.

As a result, the authorities raised the estimated cost to 51 million euro and issued a second tender.

This would be the second underground boulevard aimed at easing heavy traffic jams in the centre. In March 2012, the city signed a contract with the Turkish firm Limak to build another kilometre-long underground street.

Under the terms of the deal, the company will build this six-lane underground street and hand it over to the city for free.

In return, Limak will have the right to build a large commercial and residential complex on land above the street.