ANKARA (AA) – A consortium of Turkish and South Korean construction firms offered the shortest time for the construction of a new suspension bridge over the Dardanelles (Canakkale) Strait, Turkey’s transport minister said Thursday.
The consortium of Daelim (South Korea) – Limak – SK (South Korea) – Yapi Merkezi OGG (Turkey) bid 10.35 billion Turkish liras ($2.68 billion), which includes a five-and-half-year construction time and a 192-month lease, outbidding rivals including IHI (Japan) and Cengiz (Turkey) – Kolin (Turkey) – CRBC (China).
Ahmet Arslan said the bid committee will make its final decision in 15 days after carefully studying the details to determine the winner, but previously said the bid offering the shortest time would have the edge.
The construction of the Canakkale 1915 bridge, spanning over 2,000 meters between Lapseki and Gelibolu in the northwestern province of Canakkale, is set to start by March 18 and open in 2023 when the country marks the centennial of the Republic of Turkey, according to the country’s Transport Ministry.
The following are the four consortiums bidding for the build-operate-transfer (BOT) project:
1. Daelim (South Korea) – Limak – SK (South Korea) – Yapi Merkezi OGG (Turkey) — bid 10.35 billion Turkish liras ($2.68 billion), which includes a five-and-half-year construction time and a 192-month lease
2. IHI (Japan) – Itochu (Japan) – Join (Japan) – Makyol (Turkey) – Nurol (Turkey) – Japon Express Way (Japan) OGG — bid 10.5 billion Turkish liras ($2.72 billion), which includes a 214-month construction time and lease
3. Cengiz (Turkey) – Kolin (Turkey) – CRBC (China) OGG — bid 10.32 billion Turkish liras ($2.67 billion), which includes a 224-month construction time and lease
4. IC Ictas (Turkey) – Astaldi (Italia) OGG — bid 11.57 billion Turkish liras ($3 billion), which includes a 221-month construction time and lease
