Prague Public Transit Company, DPP, awards the contract for the tunnelling and construction of the second part of the new Prague Metro D ,the "Blue Line", to the consortium lead by Subterra. Strabag group eliminated for too high price. Very remarkable is exclusion of the PORR-lead consortium from the tender process for not compliance with tender requirements.

I have translated the press release of DPP to best of my skills and it is very critical of DPP-lead consortium to be persistent in not being compliant. Or at least it is my personal interpretation. I give the link to original Czech release below at the bottom/

The winner Subterra is also the leader of the consortium building the first Metro D section,I.D1a, Pankrác D-Olbrachtova. That consortium called "Association Metro I.D ' by Subterra, HOCHTIEF CZ, STRABAG, HOCHTIEF Infrastructure and Ed. Züblin is building that first section with almost 3 kilometres of tunnels, 2 stations one of a transfer station. First section is considered the most challenging part of the Metro D line.  Subterra is the leader of the construction of the first part, Strabag for Olbrachtova station station construction and excavation using New Austrian Tunnelling Method, the whole line will use NATM. Hochtief is responsible for geological survey,

Previous DPP releases says, the construction of the fourth line of the Prague Metro, Line D, is divided according to the difficulty into four successive stages. Work begins on the most difficult section, the construction of which will take the longest, up to seven and a half years. As the last, on the contrary, the simplest section will be created, where the construction work will take only about four years. In the first stage, referred to as I.D1a, DPP and the Association of contractors will build the section Pankrác D-Olbrachtova. It is followed by the second section, referred to as I.D1b, Olbrachtova (outside) - Nové Dvory. Within this phase, three stations will be created: Nádraží Krč, Nemocnice Krč, Nové Dvory and three inter-station tunnels, starting behind Olbrachtova station. The third section from Pankrác towards the centre of Prague, i.e.D3 Namesti Bratří Synků - Náměstí Míru, expected to open at the end of spring 2024. As the last DPP plans to start construction of section I in autumn 2025.D2 Libuš - Depo Písnice, where three stations, Inter-Station track tunnels and also the depot for trains of Line D will be created.

The line Metro D is the first metro line ever build since 1978 in Prague. The whole Metro D will be commissioned in autumn 2029.

DPP has chosen the contractor for the construction of the second section of Metro D; Olbrachtova-Nové Dvory

05. 09. 2023

Prague, 5. September 2023-based on the unanimous recommendation of the evaluation committee, the Board of Directors of Transportní podnik HL.m. Prahy (DPP) selected the contractor for the construction of the second section of Metro D from Olbrachtova station to Nové Dvory and at the same time decided to exclude the Association of companies led by PORR from the tender procedure, as its offer contained fundamental shortcomings that DPP could not accept from the point of view of the Public Procurement Act and with due diligence. The winner of the tender was an association of companies led by Subterra.

A total of three entities, namely the association led by Subterra, the association led by PORR and the association led by STRABAG, made themselves known in the tender procedure and their tender was not assessed because of the highest bid price. The two cheapest offers were then evaluated by DPP sequentially according to the price presented. The evaluation committee had a number of expert and legal analyses available for its conclusions. Both tenderers had to explain and modify their bids during the tender procedure, following calls from DPP, as they contained an extremely low bid price, shortcomings in the fulfilment of qualification requirements and errors in the submitted construction schedule. The association led by PORR requested an extension of the deadline for receiving replies by one month, and DPP granted this request in full.

While the association led by Subterra, in response to the DPP's invitation to tender, explained or adjusted the abnormally low bid price and added to the shortcomings in the construction schedule and qualification, the association led by PORR essentially ignored the invitation to explain the abnormally low bid price, correcting only some errors in the schedule and at the same time making new errors. For these reasons, on the basis of the unanimous recommendation of the evaluation committee, DPP excluded the association led by PORR from the procurement procedure. If DPP did not do so, it would be in breach of Public Procurement Law and in breach of due diligence. The association led by Subterra succeeded with the second lowest offer price of CZK 29,988,857,254. 38 excluding VAT.

It was clear from the offer made and from the explanations given by the association led by PORR, with regard to errors in the drafting of the timetable or missing elements thereof, that DPP would not have had any assurance that the contract would be properly performed. At the same time, it was clear from the price offer that some items were priced well below the market standard, i.e. they contained an unjustified extremely low bid price by the tenderer, which caused a difference to the bids of other tenderers. This concerned items essential to the project, such as tunnelling. In contrast, the offer in some flat-rate items, such as construction site equipment or assembly and coordination activities, was priced many times higher than the designer had predicted and than other suppliers had.

If DPP had accepted such an offer, it could have already paid more than a billion at the beginning of the project without actually starting the contract. In the event of a delay in the construction, the DPP would pay hundreds of millions more for the completion and coordination activities even through no fault of its own. Such conditions are unacceptable for the DPP.

"DPP always acts strictly in accordance with the law on public procurement and in accordance with the duty of care of a proper manager, "says Petr Witowski, chairman of the board of directors and CEO of DPP, adding:" the same was the case in this case and we stand behind our decision. Although we expected a major battle to be fought over this contract, some practices are completely unacceptable to us. Instead of fair competition, pressure is exerted on members of the DPP Board of directors, the DPP supervisory board or the HL. M. Board. Prague, and even threatened e-mails under false names to the members of the evaluation committee themselves. In connection with what the members of the evaluation committee and the company itself were exposed to, we are considering further legal action. Such practices are unacceptable and completely outside any acceptable limits.“

in Czech:

https://www.dpp.cz/spolecnost/pro-media/tiskove-zpravy/detail/278_2306-dpp-vybral-zhotovitele-stavby-druheho-useku-metra-d-olbrachtova-nove-dvory

Metro lines drawing is from DPP.