Construction of Bratislava ring road has still not fully started

Meeting the deadline for its completion in 2020 is questionable.

Construction of the D4/R7 ring road will limit also cyclists.Construction of the D4/R7 ring road will limit also cyclists. (Source: Sme)

The concessionaire company Zero Bypass Limited has not yet confirmed whether it will manage to build the 60-km ring road around Bratislava by the agreed-upon deadline of 2020. Due to delayed preparations and permissions, its construction has not yet started even though it is almost two years after the concessionaire agreement was signed in May 2016 and one and a half years since the ceremonial tapping of the foundation stone in October 2016.

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Read also: Construction of Bratislava ring road officially launched Read more 

Zero Bypass explained that construction work may only start in full when it obtains all the adjusted construction permissions reflecting the technical and project solutions submitted in the tender for the work and on whose basis it won the order.

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“One should realise that the tender to build the Bratislava ring road enabled all participating consortiums to offer alternative solutions, which we also did,” wrote Zero Bypass, as cited by the SITA newswire. “This enabled us to make a competitive offer with a positive impact on all taxpayers.”

The concessionaire claims that at this moment it is not able to respond to the delay of the project.

“We would like to stress that we have started work in localities in which valid construction permits enabled us some partial permission at least,” the consortium wrote. “We believe that positive efforts and the approach of all participants will enable us to speed up the process and to start construction works on all stretches.”

Zero Bypass has optimised and adjusted the technical solutions for the project to achieve an ideal ratio between the quality and cost needed for the construction. It claims that the quality will not be lowered and will be in full harmony with the valid norms and requirements of the concessionaire agreement.

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The Slovak Transport Ministry has repeatedly called on the concessionaire to start the construction of the ring road. It claims that the concessionaire had to take into account the time needed for changes in the permissions when submitting its offer and when signing the concessionaire agreement.

Bratislava ring road

The Bratislava ring road will consist of stretches of the D4 highway and the R7 dual carriageway totalling 60 kilometres and will be actually the first part of a complete ring road. The D4/R7 stretch will make it easier for people from villages around the capital to commute to Bratislava, unburdening traffic especially on the I/63 first-class road leading via Rovinka and Dunajská Lužná towards Šamorín.

It was a consortium led by the Spanish firm Cintra, which won the tender to design, build and operate the ring road as a public private partnership project (PPP project).

Based on the contract, the entire D4/R7 project is to be completed in October 2020 but cars are expected to be able to travel on the R7 dual carriageway as early as April 2020.

After the ring road is complete, the state will pay the concessionaire annual instalments of €52.8 million over 30 years of operating the road. Afterwards the roads will then be transferred into state ownership. After 30 years and with inflation taken into account the ring road will cost the state around €1.76 billion.

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