Photo from UNIAN
The tender was announced in the ProZorro public e-procurement system.
The State Road Agency of Ukraine, Ukravtodor, says Turkey-based Onur Taahhut Tasimacilik İnsaat Tic. ve Sanayi A.S. has won a tender to build a bridge across the Dnipro River in Ukraine's city of Zaporizhia.
Read alsoUkraine may upgrade all major highways within two to three years – Ukravtodor
"The company Onur with its bid set at UAH 11.918 billion [US$487.4 million] has won the tender. The expected price was UAH 12.340 billion [US$504.7 million]," Ukravtodor's press service wrote on Facebook on February 21.
The tender was announced in the ProZorro public e-procurement system to select the general contractor for the construction of a highway through the Dnipro River in Zaporizhia, that is a public highway of national importance, H-08 Boryspil – Dnipro – Zaporizhia (via Kremenchuk) – Mariupol, with access to Khortytsia Island (a motorway across the Dnipro River in Zaporizhia).
The highway is 9,100 meters long with six interchanges, including 27 artificial facilities. The project also envisages two extra-class bridges with separate structures for each direction of movement.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the construction of two bridges to connect the left-bank and right-bank parts of Zaporizhia via Khortytsia Island was launched in 2004. The facility was expected to be put into operation in 2009. However, the construction was halted several times over the constant lack of financing (when the construction began, the bridge was on the city's balance, while financing was equally distributed between the state and municipal budgets).
In 2016, divers discovered broken pieces of the bridge's structures in the Dnipro River within the construction area. The prosecutor's office of Zaporizhia region sent the found elements for examination, which concluded that builders had used improper concrete for the construction of the underwater part. Following a series of additional tests, the experts started talking about a halt to the construction of the bridge as its structures had already begun disintegrating.
At the initial stage of the construction, the cost was estimated at UAH 2 billion (US$81.8 million). Now it is almost UAH 13 billion (US$531 million).
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tasked the relevant authorities with resuming the final stage of the bridge construction project in early 2020.