Eight bidders are required to design and build the Homole highway tunnel

The Highways and Highways Directorate (ŘSD) has completed the first part of the pilot competition, in which it is looking for both a designer and a builder the Homole tunnel on the highway section D35 Ostrov – Vysoké Mýto. It is the first ever competition of the ŘSD for a motorway tunnel in the Design & Build mode.

The investor received a total of eight requests to participate, but did not disclose the details of the interested parties. “An assessment of the applicants’ qualifications will now take place and then a call for tenders will be issued to those applicants who meet the qualification criteria.” said Radek Mátl, head of the RSD. The deadline for submitting applications for participation expired on July 11, and the finalists will then have until August 11 to submit their bids.

The ŘSD excluded the tunnel from the section Ostrov – Vysoké Mýto, for the construction of which it intends to issue a separate tender next year. The tunnel will have two tubes, the right one will be 570 meters long and the left one will be 525 meters long. The estimated price of the contract is 2.46 billion crowns. It should be built between 2023 and 2026, i.e. at the same time as the entire section Ostrov – Vysoké Mýto, which is over six kilometers long.

Last year, the RSD launched preliminary market consultations for the tunnel, which were supposed to show whether such a method of selecting a supplier would be worthwhile. The choice to leave the designer and contractor under one contractor is also justified due to the experience with the Pohůrka tunnel on the D3 near České Budějovice, where the tunnel construction method had to be changed after the start of construction. The original project turned out to be unusable.

The Homole tunnel will go along the busy road I/17. Part of the tunnel is to be excavated and part to be excavated.