International Construction Law Review
THE STOCKHOLM SOUTHERN LINK, AN UNDERGROUND MOTORWAY—RISK MANAGEMENT
PER OLOF SAHLSTRÖM
Project Director, Southern Link, Swedish National Road Administration
THE SOUTHERN LINK—A BRIEF PRESENTATION
The Southern Link constitutes one part of the planned Stockholm Ring Road. Time of construction is from 1997 to 2004 and the total cost is HK$5500 million. It consists of 5.5 km of underground motorway, mostly in rock tunnels, with underground interchanges. There are two parallel tunnels, one for each traffic direction.
DIVISION INTO CONTRACTS
To achieve effective competition between the tendering contractors and to get low construction cost, the project is divided into 12 contracts.
The following, partly contradictory, points of view were considered:
- Division into several contracts will increase the range of capable contractors by which the competition will increase.
- The fact it is a tunnel project in an urban area puts a limit to the number of contracts from practical points of view (for instance work sites physically independent from each other).
- Contracts should be big enough to attract international contractors, by which the competition will increase (the number of capable Swedish contractors is quite small).
As a result of these considerations the Southern Link was divided into:
- 12 geographically separated construction contracts (four rock tunnel contracts, four cut-and-cover concrete tunnel contracts and four traditional road-on-the-ground-surface contracts, where each contractor will be able to reach his site and perform the works mainly independent of adjoining contracts. All rock excavations are made as measurement contracts; concrete structures and temporary constructions as design and construct contracts.
- 9 contracts for fixtures and installations in the tunnels, each contract including both the rock tunnels and the cut-and-cover tunnels. This
[2001The International Construction Law Review340