Impregilo’s €250 million Polish road contract cancelled
08 March 2013
Italian contractor Impregilo said Poland’s motorway authority, the General Division of Highways & Motorways (GDDKiA), had cancelled a €250 million contract it awarded at the start of February, after a rival contractor launched a legal complaint.
It said the GDDKiA had to evaluate the rival offer before it could re-award the contract for three lots of Poland’s A1 Torun to Strykow highway, with a length of approximately 75km.
Impregilo’s consortium for the contract was led by its subsidiary Salini Polska with a stake of 33.34%, with Impregilo also holding 33.34% and local contractor Kobylarnia with 33.32%.
Poland’s Appeal Tribunal for Public Works upheld in part an appeal by an unnamed competing contractor, leading GDDKiA to revoke the contract.
Contractual disputes have led to many delayed and cancelled road building projects in Poland, and output in Poland’s road construction market is expected to decrease to PLN20 billion (€4.8 billion) in 2013 partly as a result of these problems.
And in February, European Commission (EC) funding worth €950 million for Polish road building projects was interrupted while investigations are carried out into an alleged price fixing cartel in the sector.