The Ministry of Education assured yesterday that the “priority is that the work of the IES de La Florida be carried out” and that it be carried out, therefore, as had been agreed with the temporary union of companies (UTE) that was awarded the These works. This week the regional government sent these companies a letter demanding that the works begin. Ministry sources indicated yesterday that they had not yet received any response. The latest news is that the UTE wants to cancel the works due to the exorbitant price of the materials.
Both the Oviedo City Council and part of the opposition had urged the ministry to re-tender the works, by way of urgency. Education prefers to wait. “We are waiting for an answer, because the priority is that the work is done,” said the same sources. This union of construction companies had, according to the version of Education, been delaying the deadlines after having requested an upward revision of prices. The fact is that they demanded that review only three days after signing the contract. Now, several months after that signing, they intend to rescind the agreement, so the construction of the institute would once again return to square one. Like in 2019.
The UTE IES La Florida –which has its headquarters in the Argame industrial estate (in the council of Morcín)– was awarded the project with a budget of 7.4 million, which had meant a decrease of one million on the final amount of the tender, which had been set at 8.4 million. The contract had been formalized on November 9 last year. Three days later, the UTE submitted a letter to the Ministry’s contracting body in which it requested that the sharp increase in the price of materials be taken into account.
At that time, the builders were already beginning to denounce that the price of materials, due – at that time – to the commercial tensions in China, was beginning to skyrocket. In fact, the Ministry of Transport prepares a monthly index on the costs borne by the construction sector in Spain. In its statistics, it is verified how effectively from November to here the price of materials has increased notably. Now they are higher than ever as a result of the war between Ukraine and Russia.
However, the neighbors understand that such an increase should have been foreseen in some way in the contract signed between the company and the Ministry of Education. “Six months have passed since there was that signature,” recalls the president of the neighborhood’s neighborhood association, Modesto López. The solution, he understands, should go through dialogue and both parties sit down to negotiate an agreement that includes the immediate start of work. “What we want is for the works to be done now,” he says.
The weariness among the neighbors is palpable. “We began to reclaim this institute as early as 2007, fifteen years ago”, assures Modesto López. The populous neighborhood of La Florida has about 10,000 residents, according to the latest accounts handled by the neighborhood association. In the plot where the building that will house the future students of the institute is planned to be erected, some work was done a few months ago to flatten the land and make it ready for the construction company that was in charge of the works to start with the foundation. Not for those.
In 2019 the works were one step away from starting. At that time, the works had been awarded to the Iguar-Ceteco joint venture, but they were never carried out as the company claimed that the project was becoming more expensive due to the need to eliminate the contaminated land that had been located. He returned to the square of departure, as it could happen now.
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