Bottleneck. Too narrow for the volume of traffic carried

TW
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Residents in Ferreries and motorists travelling from one end of the island to the other will have to wait even longer for the bypass around the town which was first proposed some 25 years ago, despite the fact that the project has been put out to tender.

The first problem arose when three bidders put in tenders for amounts which were well below the estimated cost of 27.8 million euros, leading to fears that they would be unable to fulfill their part of the deal or would have to use products of inferior quality to stay within budget.

The consortium which submitted the lowest price, COPCISA-Climent Olives, was asked to show that the work could indeed be completed for over 9 million euros less than the estimated price tag and a similar request was made to the two consortiums with the next lowest tenders, Acciona-Melchor Mascaró and Dragados-Gomila. The documents supplied by the three bidders is currently being studied by the Island Council's Technical Services Department.

If COPCISA-Climent Olives can show that their tender is trustworthy and credible, then the consortium will be awarded the contract. Otherwise it will pass to the company classified in second place in the bidding.

However, there is now an added problem in that one of the companies which submitted a tender for the project has denounced two of its competitors, claiming that the two have, at least in part, the same shareholders, that is, that some of the members of the board of directors of one are indirectly involved in the other.

As a result the Island Council has asked the two denounced companies to provide documentation to either prove or disprove the claim, before the beginning of this week. These will then have to be studied and a decision made.