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NORTH BAVARIAN HIGHWAY DIRECTORATE DEVELOPS LARGE-SCALE PPP PROJECT FOR THE FIRST TIME WITH E-TENDERING

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Den Start hat die Autobahndirektion für Januar 2019 angesetzt.

Support from practical experience is the alpha and omega of successful software in our sector.

Gisela Karl

In the course of the implementation of the current large-scale ÖPP project in North Bavaria, the Supreme Construction Authority of the Bavarian State also wants to break new ground with its electronic tendering platform

V-MODELS OFFER INCENTIVES FOR HIGH QUALITY IN HIGHWAY ENGINEERING

The Bavarian state construction authority is in the process of realizing a large highway project on the A3 between the Biebelried and Fürth / Erlangen intersections. Over 70 kilometers of highway are to be extended to six lanes through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) and also within the framework of a so-called availability model (V-model). They will be retained and operated by a private contractor until 2048. The special thing about V-models: In contrast to the first A-models, in which concessionaires were remunerated through the levying of tolls on the constructed and operated highway sections, in V-models the availability of the highway section is the basis for remuneration. In this way, the contractor is given an incentive to implement the project to a high quality over a long period of time. This is because the contractor only receives the full remuneration when the highway, as contractually agreed, is fully available to the public without reduction in the number of lanes.

For this superlative highway project, the Federal Parliament made 2.4 billion Euro available in the federal budget. Alongside more than 70 kilometers of road extension, around 100 larger and smaller construction projects are included in this section. Among them are three large-scale bridges with spans of over 100 meters and almost 140,000 square meters of noise-protection walling, to name just a few examples.

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Large-scale PPP project in North Bavaria. For this superlative highway project, the Federal Parliament has made 2.4 billion Euro available in the federal budget.

FIRST PPP PROJECT AFTER NEW TENDERING LAW

Perhaps the most unusual thing about this first PPP project developed under the control of the Highway Directorate of North Bavaria: This is probably the first large-scale PPP project to take place in Europe where the requirements of the new tendering laws of April 18 2016 have been in full effect.

In October 2016, a so-called expression of interest procedure was begun to raise awareness of the project in the run-up to it. Interested companies were then able to express interest in order to take part in the process. The full tendering documents were to be provided for the companies from March of this year as a download on the tendering platform of the Bavarian State Construction Authority at www.meinauftrag.rib.de, at which point the interested parties, who could come from other European countries or even anywhere in the world, were to be requested to confirm their interest. These documents included, among others, partially detailed preliminary plans from the client. Within a time period of 30 days, those companies who wished to apply could send in their requests for participation. Once these were checked, the selected companies were requested to tender their first bid by December of that year. From these initial quotations, the highway directorate was to continue by selecting the two best bidders using the calculated prices, technical implementation and suggested financing models, then carrying out negotiations with both. Here, the contracts were able to be optimized economically and technologically. Then, the two finalists were to send their final bids. One of them – assuming the tender was economically viable – would receive the award and the financial close phase, so-called, would then begin, with the input of the investors. Eight weeks later, all contracts would have been fully signed and sealed.

START IN JANUARY 2019

The start of construction has been scheduled by the highway directorate for January 2019. All operational services on the section of highway will be transferred from May 1 of 2019 from the Directorate to the contractor, who then will be responsible for ensuring very good quality on the section for around 30 years – including all construction works.

CONTINUOUS ELECTRONIC PROJECT COMMUNICATION

Perhaps the greatest change that will take place with the new tendering law regards project communication between client and contractor: This is to take place completely electronically. That is, all bids from the interested bidders are to be electronically uploaded to the platform www.vergabe.bayern.de. In the entire process, no conventional offers of tender in paper form will be submitted.

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This is probably the first large-scale PPP project to take place in Europe where the requirements of the new tendering laws of April 18 2016 have been in full effect.
RIB
Winter service: In the V-model, the contractor is to ensure the very good quality of the section for around 30 years, including all structures.

 

NEW BENCHMARKS FOR THE RIB PUBLIC PLATFORM iTWO E-VERGABE PUBLIC

I see it as a great advantage for us as a public body to be included directly in development. Our collaborative spirit is very good, both with RIB and with the other two development partners.

Gisela Karl

The large amount of data that are uploaded to the tendering platform of the state construction authority blow up the scale of all previously known dimensions: The Highway Directorate of North Bavaria is looking at up to 20,000 files with a data volume of around 60 gigabytes. These are new benchmarks for the electronic tendering platform, which is technologically based on the iTWO e-tendering public platform from RIB software. Ordinarily, the e-tendering platform must handle files around 200 megabytes in larger projects. This enormous quantity of data, the new award phase of the expression of interest procedure and the data structure, alterations and transparency pose new challenges for the platform. Parallel to the PPP large-scale project, the technology of the tendering platform is being rigorously developed further in several stages. Supporting the development, alongside colleagues from the Bavarian State Interior Ministry for Construction and Transport, are the Berlin Senate Administration for Urban Development and Living and Building Management Schleswig-Holstein, which also operate platforms on the basis of RIB iTWO technology. Senior Construction Councilor Gisela Karl, from the Bavarian Interior Ministry for Construction, explains how they work together with RIB software AG: “Support from practical experience is the alpha and omega of successful software in our sector. I see it as a great plus for us as a public body to be included directly in development. Our collaborative spirit is very good, both with RIB and with the other two development partners.”

Intelligent Q & A

The next task for the tendering platform consists of coordinating the questions and answers of the bidders. Already in the expression of interest phase, around 60 questions were input to the platform, some of them very technically demanding and related to the most minute details of the project. The client expects around 1,000 questions that relate, for example, to single elements of reference planning. An intelligent search function including all attachments is required here.

A REPETITIVE PROCEDURE

Perhaps the greatest challenge for the software is in the negotiation phase, due to start next year. It is particularly the repeat submission of offers in this phase that offers new difficulty for the software. As all project communication takes place electronically, based on the renewal of the tendering law, in effect the whole procedure repeats itself many times, including bidder questions, bids, opening and checking.  Here, all adjustments must remain transparent, untampered-with and continuously documented. Gisela Karl, concluding: “RIB is supporting us with the first ‘digital V-model’ in taking a totally new road in highway construction and operation, as well as in e-tendering. We look forward to successful collaboration.”

Benefits:

> high transparency in the planning process

> improved coordination of all involved in planning

> BIM as an all-encompassing method ensures quality in the project

Are you interested? Then get in touch with us!

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