Today, road building companies complain often that the General Directorate for National Roads and Highways (GDDKiA) prepares poor projects. In Gorzow Wielkopolski, GDDKiA did not want to accept the road built by a company and demanded to correct some mistakes. The construction company said it was GDDKiA who was to blame for the mistakes because its project was wrong. That’s why the Directorate wants to introduce a new system, in which the construction company is responsible not only for building but also designing the road. Scott Wilson company has already been chosen to prepare the implementation of this model in Poland for EUR 8.3m.
The system was invented in the UK. According to Damian Lewandowski from Scott Wilson, there are both advantages and disadvantages of the “design and build” model. The biggest advantage is shorter construction time and a guarantee that the price will not be changed. The disadvantage is that it may turn out to be more expensive.
“There is no project during the tender, so it’s harder to estimate the price. Deliverers must take this into account so they will offer maximum prices not to have losses in case of emergency”, Maciej Grelowski from Business Centre Club said.
“Thanks to bigger independence, the construction company may implement solutions easing the process. There are chances for savings even at the stage of evaluation”, Damian Lewandowski believed.
An attempt to implement a similar project in Warsaw failed, however. In a tender to build a bridge over Vistula river, the cheapest offer amounted to PLN 1bn (EUR 273m) while municipal authorities had PLN 600m. Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, president of Warsaw and deputy head of Citizens’ Platform (PO), decided it would be cheaper to order the project and the construction works separately.
(PLN 1 = EUR 0.273)