The line was approved on June 19, when the Nacka Land and Environmental Court granted Stockholm County Council an environmental permit for the project. The 4.1km extension from Kungsträdgården will serve new stations at Sofia, Hammarby Kanal, Sickla, Järla, and Nacka. A new platform will also be constructed at Gulmarsplan station.
However, the decision to award the contract to CRTG has been criticised by Subterra Sweden, which came second in the tender. Subterra Sweden CEO, Mr Patrick Marelius, told business website Dagens Industri that the contract price was far below the estimated cost of the project, and said a Chinese state-owned company should not be allowed to compete in the Swedish tunnelling market.
In a statement released on October 4, the council defended its decision to award CRTG the contract and said it was awarded to the most competitive tender in accordance with national and European laws, which do not prohibit suppliers from other countries.
“We place the same demands on all companies that want to submit tenders for our work, and we neither do, nor want to, discriminate against any supplier due to nationality,” the statement said.
“We make many tough demands, for example on how our suppliers work with sustainability, the environment and information security. They also need to show that they have good financial conditions to do the work.
“CRTG meets all the requirements we set and they submitted the lowest bid. We are expanding the metro with tax money and we will manage that wisely.”
The council said the procurement of national and international tenders provided a better price for the contract, and the offer from CRTG was close to what it calculated as the correct cost of the project.
It added that CRTG had participated in the tender for the work tunnels in Barkarby, where the contracts were awarded to NCC and Subterra Sweden.
The council also hit back at concerns about the environmental impacts of the project.
“We will work in exactly the same way with the working environment at the working tunnels in Nacka as we do in Barkarby today,” the council said. “Region Stockholm is a responsible developer and our own experts in the work environment will work in close collaboration with the contractor to coordinate and control the work environment.
“The same applies to sustainability issues and, not least, the follow-up of subcontractors. We require all our suppliers to work on limiting the climate impact while we build and do analyses in their supply chains regarding social risks.”
The contract with CRTG has yet to be signed, as the other bidders have until October 7 to appeal against the award.
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