almost 20% more of money will have to put on the table the Basque Government and the Basque Public University (EHU/UPV) in order to carry out the construction of the new Faculty of Medicine and Nursing that they intend to build next to the Basurto Hospital.
The rectory has tendered this Monday once more for the project of a training building in a triangular shape for an economic amount of 64.1 million euros, slightly more than ten million increase, regarding 53.41 million euros for what went out to public tender for regarding a year now.
A project that was choked following, once the works were awarded last spring, the group of companies that won the tender made up of Adolfo Sorbino, Altuna and Uría constructions. and Cycasa Canteras y Construcciones decided to resign from the job shortly before its scheduled start for the month of September. For this, he justified the economic situation, which had triggered the increase in costs in the energy, raw materials and construction markets that made the offer that they had presented unaffordable. That is, the numbers did not give the companies to be able to count on an economic benefit.
The firms in their resignation letter valued precisely at 20% (the increase in the new tender) “the disproportionate rise in construction costs since the offer was presented” which prevented them “from facing the contract in the agreed terms”.
“We have not given up in the effort to carry out our commitment”
This Monday, the rector of EHU/UPV, Eva Ferreira has specified how “we have had to overcome unforeseen difficulties due to the economic crisis, derived from the increase in energy costs and the war in Ukraine, which made it impossible to materialize the previous award, but we have not given up our efforts to carry out our commitment”.
The rectory team did not want to give up one of its flagship projects in Bilbao which will culminate the university pole in Basurto together with the technical faculties that currently teach classes in the area.
Ferreira concrete how “The Faculty of Medicine and Nursing, the health sector and Basque society itself deserve to improve the teaching and research infrastructure of this center and we have finally taken the decisive step”. The process to put the building out for competition once more has been complex and will mean that the idea of inaugurating the facilities for the 2025-2026 academic year will be postponed until the following school period.
EHU/UPV hopes that not only the group of companies that renounced starting the works will present themselves (it had already been constituted as a temporary union under the name UTE Medikuntza) but also that other construction firms will present their proposals. They will have almost two months to do so, so that, later, a technical court will decide which of the propositions is the most valid and will keep the lucrative contract.
The public university calculates that the works might begin in the second half of June 2023, Therefore, with a 36-month deadline for the execution of works, the new faculty might be operational by October 2026 as long as the building creation work is not delayed and its subsequent equipment, a fundamental asset to be able to teach classes and investigate, is carried out without any problem.
Much more than a college
Because this special teaching block that will occupy the site of the current parking lot of the Basurto Hospital of around 5,300 m2, it will not only serve to train new physicians and nursing staff. Is much more. It will constitute an advanced pole in university education, collaborative research and knowledge transfer in Health Sciences.
In the field of teaching, the block will house degrees in Medicine, Physiotherapy and Nursing, as well as seven master’s degrees ranging from healthy aging and quality of life, through Pharmacology to Public Health, among others.
The rectory has also valued how the new infrastructure will allow early contact of students “with the reality of the patient”, in addition to improving coordination between degree courses and fostering synergies with nearby centers such as the School of Engineering of Bilbao, where from the next academic year 2023-2024 the degree of Biomedical Engineering will be offered.
on the block too the aim is to increase the competitiveness of R+D+i and the transfer of results, both by basic research groups and those of a more healthcare nature. This collaborative environment will allow the promotion of applied research projects for companies in the Biomedical Engineering sector and will be a dynamic element for the transfer of knowledge generated through patents and start-ups.
Retail
Various offers. The Rectorate hopes that on this occasion the construction companies that present themselves will see the project juicy since practically all the economic items whose price of materials have increased in the last year have increased.
One year late. The delay in the entire process of recalculation of budget items will imply a one-year delay in the delivery of the building so that it is expected to enter service for the 2026-2027 academic year.
Synergies with the School of Engineering. The Bilbao School of Engineering will offer the Biomedical Engineering degree from the next academic year 2023-2024, in which the new Faculty will later participate once it opens.