April 23 (SeeNews) - Croatian motorway operator Hrvatske Ceste signed on Monday a 2.08 billion kuna ($343 million/280.5 million euro) deal for the construction of Peljesac bridge with a Chinese consortium led by China Road and Bridge Corporation, the government said.
The contract was signed in Dubrovnik, the government said in a statement.
State-owned Hrvatske Ceste also signed a contract for the supervision of construction works on the bridge with local civil engineering company Institut IGH [ZSE:IGH].
In January, Hrvatske Ceste selected the Chinese consortium, comprising also CCCC Highway Consultants Co. Ltd., CCCC Second Highway Engineering Co. Ltd. and CCCC Second Harbour Engineering Co. Ltd, for the Peljesac bridge construction.
Last week, the unsuccessful bidders in the tender, Austria's Strabag and a tie-up comprising Italy's Astaldi and Turkey's IC Ictas Isaat Sanayi, submitted a complaint to Croatia's administrative court against the country's public procurement authority DKOM, which had dismissed their objections against the selection of the Chinese consortium for the construction project.
DKOM said in March that the complaints submitted against the decision of Hrvatske Ceste to pick the Chinese consortium for the Peljesac bridge works were unfounded.
Croatia's transport minister Oleg Butkovic told brodcaster HRT on Thursday that DKOM's decision is legally binding, but added that he could not say whether the complaint lodged to the administrative court would delay works.
"I am not allowed to comment on litigation", Butkovic said, adding that as soon as the contract is signed preparations for the works would begin.
The Peljesac bridge will connect the peninsula of the same name with the rest of mainland Croatia over the Adriatic, providing an alternative route to crossing the Neum Corridor - a strip of the Adriatic coastline situated in Bosnia and Herzegovina between these two parts of Croatia.
The Peljesac bridge will be 55 m high and 2.4 km long, with four lanes. Construction is expected to take 36 months.
(1 euro=7.41470 kuna)