The volume of public construction contracts rose by 14 percent by February

Prague - Since the beginning of the year until the end of February, public institutions in the Czech Republic have announced 410 tenders for construction work worth 17.9 billion crowns, an increase of 14.1 percent year-on-year. This is based on an analysis by CEEC Research, which has been made available to ČTK. Construction companies secured work worth 9.8 billion crowns over the two months.
Although the value of the announced tenders is almost one-fifth lower compared to last year, the decline of 18.7 percent was caused by a large contract from the state company ČEPS in February 2014 worth 2.2 billion crowns, which was awarded as a two-year contract. If this contract were excluded from the statistics, the volume of construction work ordered this year would be similar to last year.
The largest contract, worth 520 million crowns, was awarded in February by the Railway Infrastructure Administration (SŽDC). For the modernization of the track Brno Maloměřice - Brno Židenice, the construction company Ridera Stavební was selected. The consortium of companies M-Silnice, Eurovia, and Mados won the largest competition completed by the Road and Motorway Directorate (ŘSD) for the expansion of the first-class road number 37 between Pardubice and Trojice for 368 million crowns.
"Growth is primarily driven by engineering constructions (communications, railways, and so on), which is certainly good news after years of 'starvation'. But it also means that ground construction is still stagnating. Selections are carried out primarily based on the lowest price criterion, although the adverse consequences of this selection system are well known," said Ivo Kovalík, director of Arch.Design.
Zdeněk Pokorný, chairman of the board of VCES, views the first data of the year with mild optimism. "Projects for transport constructions are in a more advantageous position. The volume of public contracts in ground construction and water management projects still has to wait for a revival in growth. However, there are still reserves in closing tender procedures. If all tenders announced last year could be closed, Czech construction would receive another much-needed boost for growth," he noted.
The construction industry is slowly recovering from the severe crisis it faced in recent years. The volume of the industry decreased by 443 billion crowns between 2008 and 2013, which is the annual turnover of construction. More than 50,000 people lost their jobs in Czech construction companies.