GTX-B Financial Section, Design Contractor Selection Initiated

GTX-B Route Map. [Source=Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport]

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Wanyong] The financially supported section of the 수도권광역급행철도 (GTX)-B line in the metropolitan area, which has failed to select a contractor due to repeated bidding failures, will proceed with contractor selection by separating design and construction orders.

On the 22nd, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Korea Rail Network Authority announced that they issued a bid notice on the 21st for the basic and detailed design of sections 1, 2, and 3 of the financially supported section of the GTX-B line. The project scale is approximately 5.6 billion KRW for section 1, 5.9 billion KRW for section 2, and 8 billion KRW for section 3, and the comprehensive evaluation and lowest bid system will be applied.

The comprehensive evaluation and lowest bid system is a bidding system where the social responsibility of companies is evaluated for construction projects above a certain scale ordered by the government or public institutions.

The Rail Network Authority plans to receive comprehensive technical proposals from the top five construction engineering firms by contract performance next month on the 22nd (including Seohyeon Engineering Group, Yushin, KRTC, Dongmyeong Engineering Group, Suseong Engineering, etc.), conduct a technical evaluation, and select a contractor on January 6 next year.

The design plan is scheduled to be completed by June 2024, and the construction contractor will be selected during the design plan preparation process.

Previously, the Rail Network Authority issued a turnkey order for sections 1 to 4 of the financially supported section of the GTX-B line in August. However, except for section 4, which got on track with participation from Hanwha Construction and KCC Construction, sections 1 to 3 failed to attract multiple bidders and were canceled after four rounds of bidding with only single participants.

Since the schedule has been significantly delayed due to the bidding failures of the financially supported section of the GTX-B line, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Rail Network Authority considered a negotiated contract with single bidders. However, considering that negotiated contracts are rarely converted in large-scale railway construction projects and fairness with the recently changed South Inland Railway (sections 1 and 9) from turnkey to comprehensive evaluation and lowest bid system, they ultimately decided to proceed with the comprehensive evaluation and lowest bid system.

Meanwhile, the privately funded section of the GTX-B line, which also experienced one bidding failure, is undergoing contractor selection procedures again. The leading candidate for the private section is the Daewoo Construction consortium. The preferred negotiator for the private section is also planned to be selected in January next year.

The Daewoo Construction consortium includes leading domestic construction companies, engineering firms, and financial institutions. Daewoo Construction is the representative company, with POSCO Construction, Hyundai Construction, DL E&C, Lotte Construction, Kumho Construction, Dongbu Construction, KCC Construction, Hoban Industry, and Namkwang Construction participating as construction investors (CI). Engineering firms include Dohwa Engineering, Yushin, Taejo Engineering, and Sambu Engineering Group. Financial investors (FI) include Shinhan Bank and Hana Securities.