Things are going well in the construction industry in Denmark at the moment. So good that there was only a single contractor who had the capacity to bid when Bane Danmark put the last stage of the upgrade of the Ringsted-Femern railway out to tender in 2021.
Therefore, the competition was not tough when M.J. Eriksson got the contract with a bid 39 per cent above what BaneDanmark had expected. This is stated by BaneDanmark’s plant manager, Søren Bo Johansen, in an email to FemernReport:
The contractor was not aware of the situation
– The offer follows all applicable rules and can thus be considered fair concerning the competition. Thus, the bid was submitted without the knowledge that there were no other bids. We would have liked to see more people bid on the project, but we, like so many others, are affected by the very high level of activity in the construction market, writes construction manager Søren Bo Johansen from BaneDanmark in an email comment to FemernReport.
All according to the book
BaneDanmark also states that although M.J. Eriksson’s offer of 120 million euros was somewhat higher than the 70 million that BaneDanmark itself had assessed the task at, the agency assesses that the tender has proceeded entirely by the book:
Corresponds to the market price
– The tender has been drawn up in collaboration with an external consultant specializing in the construction area. It has been Banedanmark’s assessment, supported by our external adviser, that the offered price corresponds to the market price in the current market. M. J. Eriksson meets the requirements to carry out the task, it is further stated in BaneDanmark’s email reply to FemernReport.
Denmark’s largest
M. J. Eriksson is Denmark’s largest land and construction contractor. The main contractor has also been responsible for the first part of the upgrade of the Ringsted-Femern railway, which was the stretch between Ringsted and Nykøbing Falster. That was in 2016, and back then, there were three competing bidders.
