Slovaks speculate that the highway tragedy was caused by the savings of builders

Bratislava - An accident during the construction of a highway bridge, in which four workers died last week and another 12 were injured, has sparked a debate in Slovakia about the impact of low prices on safety and the quality of infrastructure. Due to a shortage of contracts, companies have reportedly been competing in public tenders lately to see who can promise to build roads for cheaper.
    The under-construction bridge in eastern Slovakia, where a supporting structure collapsed during concreting, is part of a nine-kilometer stretch of future highway. The tender for its construction was won last year by a consortium of the Czech company Bögl & Krýsl and the Slovak company Váhostav. Their bid was the most advantageous for the state and about a third cheaper than the estimated value of the contract.
    According to the State Secretary of the Slovak Minister of Transport Andrej Holák, extremely low prices for highways must manifest somewhere, either in quality or comfort for passengers. He considers it "nonsense" that someone would endanger their employees out of thrift.
    Former Minister of Transport Ján Figeľ, under whose leadership the tender was held, claims that low prices are not related to the tragedy. "I consider it either incompetence or an intentional act leading to capital extraction in the wake of a disaster, or an attempt to reach a new higher price level in favor of companies," Figeľ believes.
    For the construction of the bridge on the Slovak highway, the company Bögl & Krýsl hired a Slovak firm, which in turn ordered the supporting structure from its subcontractor. According to Holák, the main contractor is responsible for the construction.
    Minister of Transport Ján Počiatek stated today that the state will require independent assessments of the used supporting structures from the main contractors, as well as assessments of the already constructed parts of the highway. "We will also examine price differences in (used) structures precisely to confirm or rule out whether the price has an impact on the quality and safety of construction," the minister stated.
    One of the members of the consortium of construction companies, Váhostav, already pointed out after signing the contract for the highway construction that it would not be able to operate in the market for long with a similar price offer.
    Počiatek also told journalists that authorities will focus on inspecting constructions involving Bögl & Krýsl in the coming days. The company is also repairing railway lines in Slovakia.
    Representatives of the current government of Prime Minister Robert Fico previously warned from the opposition benches about the risks of low prices in state tenders. Fico's first government originally wanted to complete the highways using public-private partnership (PPP) projects, where a private company builds the roads and the state then pays for the construction. Ultimately, this method managed to construct only one expressway. After the outbreak of the crisis, construction companies were unable to secure funding from banks for another project, and the previous cabinet of Prime Minister Iveta Radičová therefore returned in 2010 to building highways through tenders for individual sections with funding from European Union funds.
    The tragedy at the bridge construction site is likely to influence the upcoming amendment to the public procurement law. The government had previously considered not assessing bids with the lowest and highest price in competitions. According to Minister of the Interior Robert Kaliňák, companies that fail on state contracts should moreover be excluded from future tenders. Bögl & Krýsl is one of five participants in a court proceeding in the Czech Republic regarding a tragic accident in Studénka in the Novojičín region, where a bridge collapsed in front of an oncoming train in August 2008, resulting in the deaths of eight people and numerous injuries.
    Construction experts who visited the tragedy site stated that the concreting itself and the subsoil under the under-construction bridge were in order. It is speculated that the error occurred in the supporting structure itself. Construction expert Peter Paulík pointed out that the bridge being built was wider and at a greater height above the terrain than other bridges where this type of supporting structure is used. According to Počiatek, authorities have decided that this supporting structure can no longer be used in any construction in Slovakia.
    The exact causes of the tragedy may not be known for several weeks. After the rubble is cleared, experts will investigate the site and will attempt to simulate the course of the tragedy using computer technology.