Turkish firm likely to be awarded tender

A Turkish company has beaten off competition from Irish construction firms to successfully tender for the Ennis bypass project at almost half the cost put on the scheme by the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan.

Last November, the Minister put a €205 million price tag on the bypass scheme, due to begin in April after a two-year delay.

The tendering process opened last December. It emerged yesterday that the lowest tender for the project, lodged by a Turkish-Austrian company, is €124 million - 40 per cent lower than the cost put on the project by Mr Brennan.

It is understood the council has formally recommended that the board of the National Roads Authority (NRA) accept the Turkish-Austrian tender, inclusive of €21.6 million in VAT. A formal announcement is expected next week.

In response to the massive disparity between what Mr Brennan said the project would cost and the lowest tender lodged, the Fine Gael transport spokesman, Mr Denis Naughton TD, said yesterday: "That a multi-national company can deliver a project almost 50 per cent lower than what the Government anticipated raises significant questions on the value for money the public has been getting to date on the roads programme."

The tender lodged by the Turkish-Austrian company is less than the €145 million economic cost put on the scheme by Clare County Council's own consultants as part of the tendering process. The bid eclipses the €130 million cost put on the project when the initial tendering for the scheme was suspended in October 2001.

The Turkish-Austrian tender beat off competition from five other bidders, including four Irish companies. The nearest bid to the successful tender was €131 million by an Irish company. There were three other bids from Irish companies, ranging be- tween €157 and €168 million.

Clare County Council declined to comment on the recommended tender yesterday. At its meeting last Monday, county engineer Mr Tom Carey said the €205 million cost put on by the Minister "is a significant overstatement of the contract price".

Already, €16 million has been spent on land acquisition and archaeological surveys on the scheme and the NRA is to allocate €35 million towards the project in 2004.

The project is the largest bypass scheme approved by the NRA this year, involving the construction of a 13.8 km eastern bypass of Ennis from Latoon to the townland of Cragard outside Barefield, along with 7.1 km of a western relief road from Killow to Claureen, outside Ennis.

The scheme will involve 14 major new structures, including three river crossings and three railway crossings. A junction at Killow, north-east of Clarecastle, will be developed as the "gateway" to Ennis, north and west Clare. The new route will remove 14,000 vehicles a day from Ennis's roads.