Athens Metro Line 4: Offers’ submission deadline to be slightly extended

Deadline for the submission of technical and financial offers regarding the construction of the new Athens Metro Line 4, has been scheduled for December 10, however, according to ypodomes.com secure information, there will be a slight extension, aiming at a more “comfortable”, in terms of time, review of the technical offers. Afterwards, the date for the opening of the financial offers will be made known, a crucial step of the process that will lead to the declaration of the contractor for this transport mega-project, worth 1.8bn euros.

At the same time, the tender regarding the project’s precursory works is about to be completed, after ERETVO’s appeal, causing the process to be delayed in the previous months. Provision for the implementation of precursory works has been instituded under the new bill 4412/2016, which separates the main project from the archaeological works and the completion of all requiredexpropriations.

What remains to be seen is whether in this large and complex project, precursory works do not face any cumulative delays, especially due to the possible archaeological findings in the center of Athens.

It is reminded that the 2 projects (archaeological excavations and the main project) could even be implemented at the same time, provided that precursory works have prepared the ground for the main project’s contractor to go on.

Construction works are not expected to start before 2020, and after the contractor has been decided (in the summer of 2019, at the earliest), legal appeals will have to processed opening the way for the usual steps, the Court of Audit and the ratification of the contract by the Greek Parliament, before the final signatures, allowing the initiation of a 9-year construction period.

Nikos Karagiannis-ypodomes.com