First offers for Athens Metro Line 4 now on the table

The “great battle” of the constructions world has officially started for one of the largest transport projects in Europe: the construction of Athens Metro Line 4 (Veikou Grove-Goudi). According to our confirmed report, we are expecting 3 major joint ventures expressing their interest: 1. TERNA-VINCI-SIEMENS, 2. AKTOR-ANSALDOBREDA and 3. J&P AVAX-GHELLA-ALSTOM, which have, allegedly, already filed their expressions of interest sending a strong message for an intense “all-star” tender.

What is still in question though, is the involvement of METKA-CSS J/V or even a fifth consortium (e.g. Salini Impregilo or other construction companies from China). The tender was initially set to be held on June 30 but was postponed three times. The third (and thankfully) final postponement set the crucial date for tomorrow, August 10, 2017.

Implementing entity of Line 4’s construction, Attiko Metro, however, anticipates high-profile participations that will add prestige to the country’s emerging mega-project. According to safe information provided at Ypodomes.com, the target is for the evaluation of all interested parties to be completed by early 2018, allowing the project to proceed in the technical and financial offers’ submissions shortly after.

If everything progresses as expected, next summer we will be ready to find out the contractor that has secured the golden contract and, after a pre-contractual period lasting several months (appeals, Court of Auditors, ratification of the contract by the Parliament), everything will be ready for the final signatures, sometime in 2019.

It is noted that the project for the construction of Athens Metro Line 4 is the largest metro-related project of all times in Greece, surpassing in terms of scope and budget, Lines 2 and 3 combined, back in the early 1990s. This of course has created considerable mobility among leading construction companies in Europe and Greece, as well as companies specialized in electromechanical equipment and trains’ procurement.

New Athens Metro Line 4 will not be very similar to existing Lines 2 and 3, from a technical point of view. All stations will be having a platform length of 110 meters, equipped with safety doors that will be opening upon trains’ arrivals. Trains will be fully automatic and driverless (just Line Thessaloniki Metro) while the new control center will be constructed along with the new line.

Line 4 will be covering most of the densely populated areas of the capital starting from Galatsi, Kypseli, Gizi, Alexandra’s Ave., Exarchia, Akadimia, Kolonaki heading to Ilisia, Zografou, Kessariani and finally Goudi, a few hundred meters from Mesogion Ave.

Nikos Karagiannis-ypodomes.com

Follow Nikos Karagiannis on Twitter