Athens Metro Line 4 contract to define the leaders of the construction sector

The country’s biggest infrastructure project, for the next decade, Athens Metro Line 4, is what will essentially define the new leader in the constructions. Line 4, apart from its very positive social impact, it is expected to bring great improvement in the transport performance of the capital and create a new equilibrium of power among the big construction companies.

Today, AKTOR and TERNA, having the largest backlog (over 2.5bn euros) are at the top along with J&P AVAX, MYTILINEOS and INTRAKAT. INTRAKAT, decided not to participate in the competition, perhaps eyeing a possible collaboration with the contractor on a construction level.

The 1.8-billion-euro (VAT included) contract, which is the overall cost of Line 4, will have a considerable effect on the constructions sector, especially given the fact of other major projects’ shortage. It is noteworthy that, the 4 big Greek construction companies are participating in separate joint ventures, all claiming the “golden contract”. The alliances formed for the transport mega-projects are:

1. AKTOR-ANSALDOBREDA-HITACHI

2. TERNA-VINCI-SIEMENS

3. J&P AVAX-GHELLA-ALSTOM

4. MYTILINEOS-FCC-ARCHIRODON

Regarding the 4^th J/V, Huyndai Rotem has undertaken the sub-project of trains procurement.

It is also very important that 2 TBMs will be drilling the tunnels of the new line while there is provision for a third one in case of the project being in danger of lagging behind. It is clear that the size of the project is vast for the Greek standards, making the presence of powerful and technically experienced companies, reassuring for the successful arrangement of all challenges that will come up.

In order to see the broad picture, it is worth mentioning that beyond INTRAKAT, which did not participated in the tender, we also have absences from strong foreign companies that would give an even greater momentum, such as Salini Impregilo (active in Greece) as well as others that did not finally express any interest. All 4 schemes are expected to qualify to the tender’s next stage.

The submission of the technical offers will be the second step, that will take several months, and after that we will see the crucial opening of the financial offers that will reveal the “golden contractor” and therefore, the new leader of constructions sector in Greece. The construction stage is expected to commence in the second half of 2019, at best.

The new line (at this stage) will be starting from Veikou Grove, and through the city center, will be ending in Goudi, a bit further from Mesogeion Ave. It will be featuring 13 km of double-track, underground tunnel with 14 stations (110 m. of platform length) and safety doors on the platforms. The tender provides for the supply of 18 new, driverless trains without drivers, which will have a time-distance of 3 minutes (180’’) with a possibility to be reduced to 2 minutes.

Attiko Metro aims for a separate tender regarding archaeological excavations, utility networks’ override, the preparation of construction sites and the acceleration of the, fortunately just a few, expropriations as most stations are located in parks or squares.

Nikos Karagiannis-ypodomes.com

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