Problems with the Peljesac Bridge: Just as Nacional predicted, the Chinese are asking for another 450 million and are not the only ones

Six months before the completion of the works, there was a problem with the final financial account for the Peljesac Bridge.

Works on the Peljesac Bridge and the access road on Peljesac are progressing according to plan, and traffic should start in March next year. Then the Elm knot should be completed.

However, six months before the completion of the works, there was a problem with the final financial account. The contractors orally announced to the investor Hrvatske ceste requests for payment of additional costs, which we have previously reported on.

As of August, Nacional published a confirmation from the director of the Croatian branch of the Greek company Avax SA stating that the final price of building two sections of access roads to the Peljesac bridge will be more expensive than agreed and that it is quite certain that the remaining sections of access roads will suffer a similar fate.

Also, the company Strabag, which is building access roads to the Pelješac Bridge on the mainland and on Pelješac as part of the project, also confirmed to us that the Austrian company will ask Hrvatske ceste to correct the previously agreed price. And since steel prices on the world market have risen dramatically in the last year, the request to amend a previously signed contract that would regulate the reimbursement of increased construction costs, we anticipated that the Chinese CRBC (China Road and Bridge Company) will request a price correction.

Due to the increase in the price of basic materials and fuels, primarily steel fittings and gasoline, there will be a significant increase in construction costs of the state road Sparagovići (Zaradeže) -Prapratno and Prapratno-Doli on the Pelješac peninsula, which are part of the Pelješac Bridge project. This was confirmed for Nacional by Koulis Pittaros, director of Avax SA Croatia, a subsidiary of the Greek company Avax SA, which is building access roads to the two mentioned sections in a total length of about 30 kilometers.

Butković, as well as HAC, do not know anything about the additional costs for the Pelješac Bridge: "We do not know about the additional demand of the Chinese"

Additional financial requirements have now been announced by Chinese company CRBC and Austrian Strabag. Greece's Avax has not yet responded, but it is also expected to claim additional funding. Additional financial requirements have already climbed to around HRK 500 million. However, the exact amounts will be known when the official written requests arrive, Jutarnji list writes.

Namely, the representatives of the Chinese company CRBC who are on the bridge construction site and the Croatian consultants who work for them made a preliminary calculation of the additional costs. They calculated that Hrvatske ceste, as an investor, should pay them an additional HRK 450

million, which is more than 20 percent of the total value of the contract. Among other things, the increase in steel prices, the impact of the pandemic, the increase in labor prices, but also the higher prices of plane tickets for Chinese workers returning home are included.

Due to the pandemic, the Chinese company has already been granted an extension of the deadline for the completion of works by six months, so the additional financial requirements due to the pandemic are considered unfounded. This amount caused real consternation and anger in Hrvatske ceste and the Ministry of Transport because the calculation is considered to be overblown and unjustified, and the calculation has not yet been approved at the CRBC headquarters in Zagreb.

In Hrvatske ceste, they are only ready to talk about compensating for the increase in costs caused by the drastic increase in steel prices. And everything else is considered unfounded.