Road Companies Demand 5-Year Maintenance Agreements

The agreements for winter cleaning and roads maintenance will be concluded not for one, but for four or five years, the Bulgarian Branch Chamber ”Roads”, the management of the Road Infrastructure Agency, and representatives of the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works (MRDPW) have agreed. Extending the terms is for companies to be sure they would be on the activities for longer periods so that they could invest in new equipment, Chair of the branch chamber Roumen Yovchev explained for Bulgaria News. The current practice is to organize tenders for each season, as the most often companies credit winters cleaning and maintenance and receive the money for works completed with a delay. The regional ministry and the roads agency intend to change this and from now on the funds for maintenance and repair works on the republican roads to be paid out to the companies in the agreed time periods.

The Roads Agency’s management is to decide if the agreements shall be for 4 or for 5 years, and then together with the chamber tender documentation and frame agreements with the companies will be drafted.

The competitions for 2011 will be opened as early as the start of next year to enable the completion of all procedures by the winter and to allow for the time limits for appeals and possible objections, Roumen Yovchev explained. The investment comes to some BGN 1-1.5 million and without long-term orders and commitments companies find it difficult to find this money or lack motivation to invest in modern equipment – so the head of the Bulgarian Branch Chamber ”Roads” motivated the proposal. Currently almost all companies work with old machines. It has also often happened one company to win the tenders for maintaining road lots in different regions declaring one and the same equipment and then to turn unable to maintain all the roads assigned to it in crisis situations.

The long-term agreements proposed might include commitments for determined investments in cleaning equipment by years, eng. Roumen Yovchev thinks.

The branch chamber’s management hopes that in three years Bulgaria’s road companies would be equipped as the German ones.

The agreements for the forthcoming winter season should be concluded with the companies by November. The new management of the roads agency has found only 14 active agreements for winter maintenance and about a month ago it urgently announced tenders for selecting 76 more companies. The tenders will be held under shortened procedures as the previous management of the agency had not opened the competitions in the spring, as reads the Public Orders Law.

If meanwhile snow would fall, the regional roads units will be entitled to enter into piece-work contracts, yet

money for the start of the season is secured.

The Roads Agency has allotted to the regional units money for the initial activities on securing roadability in winter conditions, Roumen Yovchev said. It amounts to some BGN 50 million to 100 million for each region. But for a lot of some 130-150 km about BGN 300,000 to 400,000 is needed for the entire season. The maintenance costs come to some BGN 2,000-3,000 per kilometer, the chamber pointed out.

A few days ago Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Rossen Plevneliev commented the agency didn’t have a nickel for winter maintenance of the roads. MRDPU has demanded from the Ministry of Finance BGN 25 million for winter roads cleaning and maintenance and hopes it would be able to secure all payments in the due times.

If necessary, the companies selected for maintaining a lot could provide for the activities on their behalf,

but we were assured from now on the agency would be paying us on time, Roumen Yovchev said.

It is yet not clear when and where from would be allotted the BGN 140 million that the Roads Infrastructure Agency inherited as debts to road construction companies for already completed works. The management of the agency has, though, assured the companies concerned they would be paid.