The rehabilitation of the Weissenstein railway tunnel, on the Solothurn-Moutier line (BE) is once once more delayed by at least another year. The appeal to the Federal Court once morest the award of the site postpones the work until 2024 in the best of cases.
The start of the rehabilitation of the tunnel, which is in a critical state, had already been postponed three years ago, then, also last year, because of this appeal. Originally, the railway company BLS would have liked to start the work in 2022.
As a result of this new postponement, the sanitation works on the entire Solothurn-Moutier section are also postponed, as well as those planned in the six stations concerned.
The project should last a year and a half. It will lead to the interruption of rail traffic and the temporary establishment of a bus service.
Serial appeal
The legal tussle over the awarding of the site pits the agent BLS once morest the consortium made up of the Austrian group Porr and the Aargau company Fretus. The Federal Administrative Court ruled that the railway company violated its own tender by awarding the work to Implenia.
The large Zurich construction group intends to entrust 35.69% of the mandate to subcontracting companies, while the call for tenders provides for a maximum rate of subcontracting of 35%. The Federal Administrative Court therefore awarded the contract to the Porr/Fretus duo as the cheapest candidate fulfilling the award conditions, ahead of the Bernese company Marti.
This company also appealed. The procedure went up to the Federal Court which must now rule.
Read also: Solothurn-Moutier: the Weissenstein railway tunnel will be cleaned up
