Portugal launches international public tender for the first phase of the Lisbon to Oporto High-Speed Railway Line

Council of Ministers Resolution no. 12-A/2024 of January 11^th authorised the expenditure on the first section of the high-speed railway line between the cities of Oporto and Lisbon.

As a result, Contract Notice no. 504/2024 was published in the Official Gazette on January 15^th, determining the opening of the International Public Tender for the Concession of the first section of the High-Speed Railway Line (LAV), referring to the 71km between Oporto (Campanhã) and Oiã. The respective tender documents have been published on the electronic public procurement platform anoGov.

The LAV, an essential project for the implementation of the National Railway Plan and the 2030 National Investment Programme, approved by Council of Ministers Resolution 192/2023 of 26 December, will be carried out through public-private partnerships (PPP) according to the following phases:

• Phase 1, between Oporto (Campanhã) and Soure;
  
  • 1^st Section: Oporto (Campanhã)-Oiã (PPP1)
  • 2^nd Section: Oiã-Soure (PPP2)
• Phase 2, between Soure and Carregado (PPP3); and
• Phase 3, between Carregado and Lisbon.

In terms of overall objectives, the LAV project aims to promote the decarbonisation of the transport sector, the performance and capacity of the national railways and to increase territorial cohesion.

1. What is the scope of the awarding procedure?

The scope of the awarding procedure (Procedure) is the award of the Concession Contract regarding the conception, design, construction, financing, maintenance and provision (excluding operation) by the Concessionaire of the Railway Infrastructures of the 1^st Section: Oporto (Campanhã)-Oiã (Concession Contract).

2. What is the duration of the Concession Contract?

The duration of the Concession Contract is 30 years, divided into two periods:

The Procedure takes the form of an International Public Tender, in accordance with the provisions of the Portuguese Public Contracts Code.

4. What are the tender documents?

The tender documents are the following:

The values to be included by the bidders in their proposals must not result in a net present value, updated to December 2023, of more than EUR 1,661,364,717.55. To this value a maximum amount of EUR 480,000,000.00, corresponding to public funds to be made available by the Grantor during the Development Period of the Concession Contract will be added, following the application to the 2023 Call of the Connecting Europe Facility for Transport 2 Programme.

6. Who is the Contracting Authority?

The Contracting Authority is Infraestruturas de Portugal, S.A.

7. What is the award criterion?

The award will be made according to the criterion of the most economically advantageous tender, in the form of the "best value for money", in accordance with the tender evaluation model in Annex 11 to the Tender Regulation, considering the factors and sub-factors and their respective weighting coefficients set out briefly below:

The overall score of each tender (Vp), which will enable them to be ranked according to the award criterion, will result from the sum of the partial scores obtained in each factor, multiplied by the values of the respective weighting coefficients, according to the following mathematical equation: 𝑉𝑝 = 0,7 × 𝑉𝑎 + 0,3 × 𝑉𝑏

8. What is the deadline for tender submissions?

Tenders may be submitted via the electronic platform up to 17:00 on the 153rd day following the date on which the contract notice was sent for publication. The deadline for submitting tenders will therefore be 17:00 on June 13^th, 2024.

Requests for clarification and lists of errors and omissions on the tender documents must be submitted in writing and directly on the electronic platform by the end of the first third of the deadline set for the submission of tenders.       

9. What is the period of validity of tenders?

Tenderers are obliged to keep their tenders for a period of 360 days from the end of the deadline for submitting them.