The electronic bids being opened on Tuesday afternoon. From left: PMU procurement officer Anton Suurmeijer, accounting firm Baker Tilly representative Arjen Pool, and PMU director Mirto Breell (standing).
~ Valued US $70-99 million ~
AIRPORT--Four international companies have submitted bids for the main works of the airport reconstruction project, Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA) operating company PJIAE said on Tuesday night. The submission deadline was 2:00pm Tuesday.
The four companies are Singaporean construction company CCECC, Dutch construction and engineering company Ballast Nedam, American firm Cotton Global Solutions (which bills itself as a disaster reconstruction specialist), and Canadian company Aecon Airport Construction Ltd.
Ballast Nedam has worked on PJIA’s terminal before, being contracted to replace the airport’s damaged roof after Hurricane Irma. In the past five years, the company has also worked on expansions of Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport and Aruba’s Queen Beatrix International Airport.
Aecon Airport Construction recently built a new terminal facility at Bermuda’s L.F. Wade International Airport. This project – which cost a reported US $267 million – started in March 2017 and was completed in September 2020. The new terminal officially opened on December 9, 2020.
The submitted bids range from $70 million to $99 million, said PJIAE on Tuesday.
These are less than the $107 million price tag that PJIAE estimated for the project in 2018. The World Bank and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have provided loans of $50 million each to cover the cost of the main reconstruction project, while PJIAE put up the remaining $7 million from its own funds.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the bids were submitted electronically via encrypted files instead of the usual paper submissions.
PJIAE’s Project Management Unit (PMU), which oversees the entire reconstruction project, opened the electronic bids at 3:00pm Tuesday under the supervision of independent accounting firm Baker Tilly.
Baker Tilly was the entity that received the passwords to unlock the encrypted submissions.
Evaluation of the bids begins today, Wednesday, with the winning contract to be awarded in July, said PJIAE. This will be followed by an estimated four- to six-week mobilisation period. Actual reconstruction works will begin after mobilisation.
“The long-anticipated day is finally upon us, whereby we can now boast of this latest milestone in the way forward to complete the airport terminal reconstruction project. We must focus on building trust from the people – as SXM Airport is known as ‘The People’s Airport’ – and thus the transparency of this bidding process was quite imperative.
“The next steps will include thorough evaluation of the bids, which we will follow the criteria set in the bidding documents,” said PMU director Mirto Breell on Tuesday.
“[We – Ed.] encountered a devastating hurricane period in 2017 and [PJIAE’s] managing board is determined to complete the reconstruction process,” said PJIAE.
