The Norwegian Coastal Administration is preparing the basis for the competition for the construction of Stad Ship Tunnel. The plan is to announce the work as a major fixed-price design and construct contract, which will be acquired after a competition with negotiation. Expected announcement will be after the summer of 2023.
To ensure that the basis for the competition is as good as possible and to prepare the contractor market for the coming competition, the Norwegian Coastal Administration is inviting potential suppliers to a conference at the Radisson Blue Airport Hotel at Gardermoen on Tuesday 31 January. The dialogue conference will be held in Norwegian and will require physical attendance (it will not be transmitted digitally).
“The purpose of the conference is to prepare the contractor market for the coming competition, while the project also aims to facilitate dialogue on contract strategy and the basis for the competition,” says Project Manager Terje Skjeppestad.
Great interest in a unique project
He has found that there is great interest in building the world’s first ship tunnel.
“The ship tunnel is creating great interest from many sides, including from contractors. Obviously, this is a unique project that many are curious about - and wish to help realise. The interest is all the greater because several other big transport projects in Norway and in Europe have been put on hold,” says Skjeppestad.
The Norwegian Coastal Administration held a similar supplier conference in September 2021. This led to great interest and produced a lot of useful input, which the Norwegian Coastal Administration has been working on.
“This market dialogue is important so as to be able to present the project and the process to relevant suppliers - but also to find solutions, technology and alternatives that we have not thought of. It is about ensuring that the basis for competition does not exclude good alternatives and solutions,” says Skjeppestad.
Rock management
One of the new considerations since the previous supplier conference is the new guideline that rock spoil from the ship tunnel is to be used to develop commercial projects in the immediate area. In the previous plan, massive quantities of rock spoil were to be dumped on the seabed in the Molde Fjord.
“Both we and other stakeholders were of the opinion that dumping rock at sea was not a very good solution, in terms of both sustainability and being able to create synergies from the tunnel project. Now, contractors are instead encouraged to find effective solutions for transporting about 5.4 million cubic metres of blasted-out rock spoil for use in piers, jetties, harbours and other commercial projects in the immediate area,” says Skjeppestad.
Conference and dialogue
The supplier conference is intended to be a combination of presentations in plenum and one-on-one conversations with suppliers. The one-on-one conversations are only for suppliers or consortia that can deliver on the Norwegian Coastal Administration’s entire needs.