On Friday, the project supervision commission for the physical barrier at the border with Belarus approved the results of the public procurement carried out by the EPSO-G Group implementing it and approved the essential terms of the contracts with the companies installing the barrier in the second phase of the project.
In preparation for the construction of a physical barrier of approximately 400 kilometres in the second phase of the project, the border sections were split into four parts. More than 50 companies were invited to tender, many of which participated in the market consultation published by EPSO-G prior to the procurement. From 7 to 10 companies have applied for each of these sections.
Two sections of the second phase of the project - the southern section of approximately 100 kilometres long and the northern section of approximately 70 kilometres long - will be installed by the companies Kauno Tiltai and Alkesta, which will work on the joint-activity basis. The value of the contracts with these companies will account for EUR 16.6 million and EUR 15.6 million (excluding VAT) respectively.
On the south-eastern section, approximately 100 kilometres long, a concertina wire and fence will be installed by Brosta with a contract value of approximately EUR 27.1 million. On the eastern part of approximately 100 kilometres long concertina wire and the fence will be installed by the company Tetas of the EPSO-G Group with a contract value of approximately EUR 29.1 million.
The value of the final tenders submitted by the companies was due to the different volumes of work in these sections. In some places, concertina wire barriers have already been installed, and in other places it is not possible to install them due to natural conditions - marshes or streams flowing along the wall have formed natural obstacles.
EPSO-G is planning to sign the contract with the best tenders during the procurement process in the near future. The company’s work on the border with Belarus will start in December and the physical barrier will have to be installed by September next year.
Tetas, a company of the EPSO-G group, is currently working on the installation of a first-phase physical barrier on the most important border sections. Tetas plans to install the concertina wire on the most vulnerable sections of the first phase by the end of this year, and will install the fence segments by the end of April next year. There are currently more than 200 employees at the border.
When installing a physical barrier close to the border with Belarus, first the pyramid concertina wire is installed with 6 or 5 spirals, the fencing segments are installed next to the concertina wire from the side of Lithuania. The fencing segments made in accordance with the requirements of the State Border Guard Service (SBGS), which are resistant to adverse weather conditions and soil exposure, are fixed to the posts installed in the ground. At the top of the fence, the spiral of the concertina wire is fixed, and the total height of the fence with a spiral reaches about 4 meters.
The Project Supervision Commission is headed by the Prime Minister and includes the Ministers of Interior, Energy, National Defence, Environment and Finance, the Commander of the SBGS, the Head of the State Territorial Planning and Construction Inspectorate under the Ministry of the Environment and a representative of the project holder EPSO-G Group.