The construction of the inland access railroad for the new Gadukdo Airport was awarded for sections 1 and 2, but only section 2 failed to attract bids from construction companies. There were initial concerns regarding the construction cost, but it has been pointed out that construction companies did not participate due to the integrated bidding process for section 1.
On the 4th, the Korea Railway Corporation, the issuing agency for the access railroad, held an industry meeting at its headquarters in Daejeon on the 24th of last month. It is reported that discussions were held on reducing volumes through the separation of the work types and increasing construction costs.
Access railroad section 1 is approximately 8.5 km long and includes tunnels and a vehicle base, with a construction cost of 679.6 billion won. Section 2 will have a tunnel and one station, with a cost of 532.3 billion won.
The construction industry pointed out that the reason for avoiding section 2 construction is due to the requirement for section 2 to take responsibility for the system processes of section 1. The construction company awarded section 2 is responsible for managing the design and construction of the system that controls railway signals and power, which also falls under the responsibility of section 1.
While section 1 was established through competitive bidding by the Lotte Engineering & Construction Consortium and the Hanshin Engineering & Construction Consortium, no construction company participated in section 2.
A representative from a large construction company noted, 'I don't think I have ever seen an integrated bidding process that combines other section system processes in a major railway construction project' and added, 'Given that sections 1 and 2 each have long line lengths, many construction companies likely abandoned bids as it seems unreasonable to handle them together.'
The Korea Railway Corporation did not disclose its position on the reason for bundling the system processes of sections 1 and 2 in the bidding process. However, they explained that they are reviewing the separation of bids after fully listening to the construction companies' positions during the meeting. A representative from the Korea Railway Corporation stated, 'The last meeting was an opportunity to listen to opinions from industry stakeholders, and we plan to reissue the bid after analyzing the reasons for the lack of bids rather than simply re-announcing it.' They added, 'It is still in the review stage, so we cannot explain specific changes.'
Initially, there was an atmosphere in the construction industry that Ssangyong Engineering & Construction and Kumho Engineering & Construction would show interest in the section 2 construction project, but it is reported that they did not participate in the bidding due to the issue of integrated bidding. A representative from Ssangyong Engineering & Construction remarked, 'We have consistently been interested in the section 2 construction project, but the cost risk and construction risk arising from the integrated bidding of sections 1 and 2 were too great, so we did not participate in the bidding.' They added, 'We communicated this position sufficiently to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Korea Railway Corporation during the last meeting and expressed our willingness to actively participate if a separate bidding is conducted afterward.'