The Feringa Building has found a contractor
Almost a year ago, contracting for the job stalled as a judge intervened. UCE, a consortium made up of three companies, was in the running for the longest time. However, the RUG felt their offer of 90 million euros was too high and ended up employing a third party which offered to do the job for ten million less. UCE went to court, and the RUG was reprimanded. They shouldn’t have circumvented the tender process.
The new contract has finally been drawn up: De Groot-Lammerink will place all installations that are needed for the building’s climate regulation, water and electricity supply. The contractor will also perform maintenance on the building for the next ten years.
The holdup doesn’t seem to have led to any insurmountable issues. The construction and technical infrastructure need to be coordinated, but construction company Ballast Nedam won’t start ‘real’ construction until now. They have already installed two thousand piles.
The RUG is not quite done yet. They still have to find someone to install three kilometres worth of lab tables, 450 fume hoods, and thirty laser labs.
Construction of the gas-free Feringa Building, which will be 62,000 square metres, has been happening in fits and starts. The tender process for the construction was halted in 2017 because the improving economy drove up prices. Ballast Nedam wasn’t hired until January 2018. The building is projected to be finished halfway through 2023.