The National Roads Authority is hoping that more contractors will tender for the job of widening the M50 under its new tendering process than the two consortiums that applied under the old one which has been scrapped.
An NRA spokesman said yesterday it was hoped that the new process, required because of changes in the funding mechanism, would open up the massive €1 billion project to a more competitive environment.
Just two consortiums were involved in the old tendering process and the NRA is hoping that four or five competitive bids will be received this time around.
The spokesman disputed the statement in yesterday's Irish Times that contracts were on the point of being signed when the tendering process was pulled.
He said the process had only advanced to the stage where two qualifying consortiums had entered the formal bidding process, and that it could have taken up to another year before the contract was signed.
However, the NRA's own website states that contract documents for the project were being finalised last month. That information is still on the web, despite the termination of the original tendering process. The spokesman said the information on the web referred to a time-line which had been delayed due to a number of factors.
He maintained that despite the delay in the original tendering process, and its ultimate cancellation, the work would still be completed by the end of 2010, and that the project would not be more than two months late.
He said contract documents had not been issued under the original tendering process. "The NRA had not triggered the stage in the bidding process which would have involved the issuing of contracts."
He confirmed that the project had been put out to retendering as a result of revised conditions relating to the method of payment for the work.
The spokesman said a decision had been taken that it was better to abandon the current tendering process rather than proceed as if there had been no change in the funding mechanism. Carrying on with the original process could have exposed it to legal challenges, leading to longer delays.
Labour's transport spokeswoman, Róisín Shortall, said the delay showed that when it came to transport policy, the Minister, Martin Cullen, was making it up as he went along. "There's absolutely nobody taking responsibility for the clearing up the mess that is the M50," she said.