Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2022-08-19
Buyer: Nye Veier
Country: NO
Contract type: Works
Procedure: Contract award without prior publication
CPV classification: 45000000: Construction work | 45100000: Site preparation work | 45233139 | 63712200 | 71000000
Estimated value: 5200000000 NOK
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: Optimisation and development project for a 4-lane motorway with a 110 km/h speed limit on the stretch Langangen - Rugtvedt, with guarantee responsibility.
At the northern end it will join an existing 4 lane motorway ended by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration at Langangen in 2012. At the southern end it will join Nye Veier's ongoing project E18 Rugtvedt-Dørdal, which is under construction and is expected to be completed in December 2019.
Optimisation and development project for a 4-lane motorway with a 110 km/h speed limit on the stretch Langangen - Rugtvedt, with guarantee responsibility, see chapter D1.1 point 1 for further details.
At the northern end it will join an existing 4 lane motorway ended by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration at Langangen in 2012.
At the southern end it will join Nye Veier's ongoing project E18 Rugtvedt-Dørdal, which is under construction and is expected to be completed in December 2019.
Lots 1 and 3 will be carried out as a turnkey contract with a fixed price within BMP (the builder's maximum price) for the lots. The total BMP for lots 1 and 3 is NOK 2100 million.
A 'project optimisation phase' is to be carried out for lot 2, in which the scope and solutions for the stretch are optimised through integrated cooperation between the parties in an introductory phase, before a turnkey contract can be entered into with a fixed price for the lot.
Nye Veier AS ('Nye Veier') held a contest in 2020 for the procurement of a contract for the engineering design services for and construction of a 4-lane motorway on the stretch E18 Langangen-Rugtvedt. The project was split into three lots, of which lots 1 and 3 were to be priced separately, and lot 2 was to be an object for further project optimisation and cooperation. The tenderer EIFFAGE Génie Civil («EIFFAGE») was nominated as the winner of the contest and was awarded the contract, which was signed on 18.12.2020.
This notice is for lot 2. The tender documentation stated that a project optimisation phase was to be held first for lot 2. At the end of the project optimisation phase, the parties would enter into a turnkey contract with a fixed price before the execution of lot 2. For this lot Nye Veier had set a budget price, in accordance with the index regulation per second quarter of 2022 of NOK 3,473,000,000 NOK excluding VAT.
Nye Veier and EIFFAGE have now completed the project optimisation phase for lot 2 in accordance with the prerequisites in the contest and the signed contract. After the completed project optimisation phase, EIFFAGE has offered Nye Veier to engineer and construction lot 2 for NOK 4,517,000 excluding VAT (per second quarter of 2022). Nye Veier thus announces that the builder intends to enter into chapter C0.2 for the turnkey contract with EIFFAGE for the execution of lot 2 at the offered price.
Firstly, accepting a fixed price that is above the previous fixed budget price does not change the contract that was signed on 18.12.2020
The contract does not bind EIFFAGE to engineering and constructing lot 2 within the builder's budget price. Chapter C0.1 point 4.2, second section states that the parties must agree on a fixed price in the project optimisation phase. The contract does not include a requirement that this fixed price must be within the limit of the builder's budget price. According to chapter C2 point 44, Nye Veier has a right, but not a duty, to cancel the work on lot 2 if the costs exceed the builder's budget price. Nye Veier will not use this right.
Secondly, Nye Veier cannot see that it is contrary to the requirements for equal treatment and predictability to accept a fixed price that is above the builder's budget price.
After the project optimisation phase, it has been clarified that it is necessary to go from three shorter tunnels to a new, continuous, and longer tunnel, and a more complex road system at National Road 36 Skjelsvikdalen.  In addition, the basis now is an extended Bjønnåstunnel, an amended junction solution at Kjørholt, and an extended project optimisation phase, as well as increased costs of input factors. These are solutions and changed prerequisites for the contract that are outside what Nye Veier had allowed for in the tender documentation, and which are the reason for approx. half of the overrun of the original budget price. Other parts of the overrun that can be discussed are cost elements that the tenderer had sufficient basis to predict at the time of the tender. Nye Veier cannot nevertheless see that the overrun of the builder's budget price would have been significant for the outcome of the contest. The tender from EIFFAGE was for high quality, and the distance to the next best tender was considerable. The tender, as it exists after the completed project optimisation phase, would not have affected the ranking in the original contest. Neither is there any basis to say that other contractors would have participated in the contest if the builder's budget price for lot 2 had been higher.


Winner: EIFFAGE Génie Civil
Award value: 5200000000