Simpsonbay, Sint Maarten – Princess Juliana International Airport (SXM) completed its bidding submission process to officially select a General Contractor for the Airport Terminal Reconstruction Project “Package 2”. A bid opening committee convened at the Project Management Unit (PMU) airport site office to systematically open the electronically submitted bids on March 23, 2021 at 3:00pm.
There was widespread interest by international companies with submissions in the range between US $70m through US $99m. Reportedly, a sum of four (4) major bids have been submitted to the Project Management Unit (PMU), who respectfully presides over the entire Airport project. The companies included CCECC (Singapore), Ballast Nedam International (Netherlands), Cotton Global Solutions (United States) and Aecon Airport Construction Ltd (Canada).
The PMU explained that the bidding process was performed according to the World Bank procurement regulations, which were carefully adhered to. The bidders were required to submit their proposals in a digital encrypted file before 2:00pm today, which were later opened under the supervision of Bakertilly, an independent accounting firm, who received the passwords to unlock the encrypted bids.
“The long-anticipated day is finally upon us whereby we can now boast of this latest milestone in the way forward to complete the Airport Terminal Reconstruction Project. We must focus on building trust from the people, as SXM Airport is known as the “People’s Airport” and thus the transparency of this bidding process was quite imperative. The next steps will include thorough evaluation of the bids which we will follow the criteria set in the bidding documents, “announced an elated Director of the Project Management Unit (PMU), Mirto Breell.
As based upon the project’s timeline, the upcoming milestones should also encompass the bid evaluation starting tomorrow and contract awarding in July 2021. The start of the Airport Terminal Reconstruction Project is slated to begin within the third quarter of 2021.
PJIAE N.V. encountered a devastating hurricane period in 2017 and its’s Managing Board is determined to complete the reconstruction process. Today, only 30% of the Terminal Building is being utilized at the temporary “Package One” area with a successfully restored roofing installation, post-hurricane. Fortunately, the required funding for the reconstruction was attained from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the World Bank. The subsidy from the Sint Maarten Trust Fund and the EIB were provided as loans by the Government of Sint Maarten to the Airport. The disbursement of the loans were arranged via the National Recovery Project Bureau (NRPB).
For detailed information regarding the Airport Terminal Reconstruction Project, online users may visit the SXM Airport’s website to access the “construction” tab at www.sxmairport.com.
