Seven bids submitted for Croatia’s Peljeski bridge access roads

Croatian daily newspaper Vecernji List reported that seven bidsd were submitted for the 12.4km project.

Highest bid of €88 million has come from 3366 China Road and Bridge Corporation, which has the contract to build the bridge. Austria's 945 Strabag offered €65 million. Other bidders were France's 184 Colas, Croatia's GP Krk in cooperation with the Bosnian company Euro-Asfalt and the two Greek companies, 1570 Aktor and 1298 J&P Avax.

The four-lane 2.4km bridge will connect Croatian territory by traversing the Adriatic Sea’s Mali Ston Bay. Vehicles must currently head from Croatia into Bosnia to re-enter a peninsula that is Croatian territory.

The Turkish and Italian consortium tendered bids for the bridge were around €343 million while Strabag offered around €349 million. But China Road and Bridges Corporation came in at around €208 million.

While the bridge will be good for the economy of the Croatian area, Bosnia and Herzegovina had had concerns that the largest ocean-going ships would not have access up Ston Bay to Bosnia’s only sea port, Neum, should the Bosnian government decide to upgrade the terminals there.

Discussions have resulted in Croatia accepting design changes – and added costs - suggested by Bosnia, including an increase of bridge's height from 35m to 55m and spacing bridge supports at least 200m apart.

Last June, the European Commission approved €357 million of the European Union’s Cohesion Policy funds to build the bridge – around 85% of the project’s cost. The European Union is also funding supporting infrastructure, such as access roads, including tunnels, bridges and viaducts, the building of an 8km bypass near the town of Ston and upgrading works on the existing road D414.