The most important ten contracts awarded by the authority in charge of national roads and highways (CNADNR) in 2011 are worth EUR1.1 billion together, almost three times more than last year, according to a ZF analysis based on CNADNR data.
On the other hand, most of the highest value contracts used to go to road repair or maintenance works. This is the reason why the Transport Ministry has not been delivering any highways despite its EUR3 billion budget.
Over the past three years, the Transport Ministry has had EUR8.4 billion in budget and has delivered about 90 kilometers of highways.
The tripled contract value can be explained by the fact the most highway construction projects are 85% covered by European finds.
The road authority sent a list of the ten largest contracts awarded in 2011, which shows that unlike in the 2007-2010 period, the most important contracts awarded by CNADNR were those entailing highway construction, instead of road repairs or multi-annual maintenance.
“It’s a good thing that this ranking includes mostly highway construction contracts. I believe we have already done enough in terms of national road rehabilitation and these roads are already in a relatively good condition to use,” says Florea Diaconu, the businessman who controls builder Delta ACM 93, which posted EUR93 million revenue last year. “We have to focus on highways now.”
His company has yet to get a highway-building contract because “we lacked the necessary expertise” at the time of the tender, Diaconu said.
The top ten contracts awarded by CNADNR in 2007 totaled almost EUR300 million, according to the elicitatie.ro (the portal of the electronic system for public procurement used by public sector entities), and most of the names in that ranking were Romanian companies such as Spedition UMB.
Foreign builders started to show in the ranking in 2008 and this year most of the companies in the ranking are based abroad, mainly in Italy.
The most important contract by value, the Lugoj-Nod Dumbrava (27.4 kilometer) highway went to Italian builders Tirrena Scavi, Societa Italiana per Condotte d’Acqua and Cossi Construzioni, which will collect a little over EUR160 for their work.
The second highest contract, EUR144 million, entails the construction of the third section of the Orastie-Sibiu highway (22.1 kilometers), and went to another Italian company, Impregilo.
Austrian companies, too, won highway contracts this year. Strabag got the third most valuable of them, EUR131 million, which entails building the first section of the Orastie-Sibiu highway, while Alpine Bau got an EUR98 million contract, sixth in the ranking, for building the second section of the Nadlac-Arad highway.
The ranking also includes Romanian companies, which partnered with foreign companies to meet the requirements of the tender.
Romstrade, which is controlled by businessman Nelu Iordache, will build the first section of the Nadlac-Arad highway (22.2 kilometers) together with Portugal’s Monteadriano and Romania-based Donrep Construct for about EUR91 million. On the other hand, Straco Grup (controlled by brothers Alexandru and Traian Horpos) is building the second section of the Orastie-Sibiu highway (EUR19.7 million) for EUR90 million.
Number four and five in the ranking entail construction of the Cernavoda-Medgidia highway worth EUR118.8 million, awarded to Astaldi and Max Boegl, and the fourth section of the Orastie-Sibiu highway, worth EUR115.4 million, which went to Astaldi, Euroconstruct Trading 98 and Astalrom.
This year’s most important contract ranking does not include one of the so-called “asphalt kings” Dorinel Umbrarescu, who owns Spedition UMB and Tehnostrade. The two companies won at least EUR530 million in governmental contracts this year, according to ZF’s estimates based on publicly available information and on the data provided by CNADNR and the Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism.
The last two positions of this year’s ranking went to two road rehabilitation and upgrade contracts, awarded to Shapir Structures and Azvi, Straco Grup, Piomar Development and Tractebel Engineering and worth EUR80 million and EUR65.7 million.
The highways for which builders were selected this year are part of the European Corridor IV and should be completed by 2013, the Transport Ministry said.
Work is already in progress on several sites, as financing has been taken care of: the European Commission has approved EUR900 million for Nadlac-Arad, Orastie-Sibiu and Lugoj-Dumbrava so far.
Road infrastructure will get most of the investment money the Transport Ministry has available for next year, over EUR1.8 billion.