The scope of the tender announced by PKP PLK S.A. covers a part of an international project known as Rail Baltica (E 75). The goal of the project is to construct a railway corridor connecting Berlin, Warsaw, Kaunas, Riga, Tallinn and Helsinki.
The value of the contract in this procedure exceeds PLN 4.1 billion which makes it the highest-value tender of all PKP PLK’s tender procedures ever conducted. Owing to such considerable value, the contractors forming several consortiums competed for the contract in several appeal proceedings initiated in connection with the employer’s decisions.
On 5 June 2020 the National Appeals Chamber agreed with the argumentation presented by JDP and dismissed the last appeal lodged in the procedure by the Chinese consortium China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation / China Railway 19th Bureau Group.
As a result of the judgment delivered by the National Appeals Chamber, PKP PLK may enter into agreement with the selected contractor – consortium composed of Intercor Sp. z o.o. as the leader and Stecol Corporation and Sinohydro Corporation Limited as the members, represented by the law firm JDP.
This tender procedure was unique not only because of the scale of the project and intensity of the disputes, but also due to the fact that in the appeal proceedings the National Appeals Chamber had to decide on unprecedented legal questions regarding admissibility of using experience gained in projects that (officially) have not yet been completed to meet the participation requirements. The Chamber entirely shared the arguments of the winning contractor and found that, after complying with a number of requirements, it is admissible.
The client was represented by Wojciech Merkwa, attorney-at-law, head of the Public Procurement Team in JDP, supported by prof. Przemysław Drapała, partner in JDP.