New Bezanijska Kosa rail bridge and tunnel awaiting inspection – Contracts for analysis of current condition of rail bridges and tunnels awarded for three of five lots

A little over two months ago, the Serbian Railway Infrastructure company announced a tender for the analysis of the condition and proposal for the rehabilitation of the New Rail Bridge over the Sava River in Belgrade, the main rail route across this river in the capital, as well as for several other railway bridges and a tunnel on the Belgrade railroad.

The procedure that was supposed to be completed in early June has been extended in the meantime, and the end result is that the contracts for the tender, which was organized in five lots, were awarded for three lots, while for two they were not, namely for the analysis of the condition and the proposal for the rehabilitation of the New Rail Bridge, as well as for the preparation of the Study on the current condition of the Bezanijska Kosa rail tunnel, i.e. for lots 1 and 5. The reason for the non-awarding, when it comes to checking the condition and the proposal for the rehabilitation of the New Rail Bridge, the contract was not awarded because the only submitted bid was of a higher value than the one estimated, while there were no bids for the tunnel.

Let us remind that the tender, within lot 1, envisaged a project task that includes a comprehensive inspection of the bridge over the Sava on line 101 (Belgrade Center - Stara Pazova - Sid - state border - Tovarnik), with testing under test load and assessment of suitability for use. This includes a control static calculation, preparation of rehabilitation projects, testing under test load and implementation of a monitoring system. The subject of this part of the project task was to be a steel structure, without access structures. The project task envisaged a division into six parts - inspection of the complete structure, preparation of a control static calculation, preparation of rehabilitation projects based on the inspection and control static calculation, bridge testing, monitoring and restrictions on use.

The plan was to familiarize with the bridge design documentation in June and July 2025, and geodetic surveying with the preparation of survey reports would take place from June every 30 days until May 2026. Internal control of the complete documentation on the inspection of the bridge structure was to be carried out in the period December 2025 - May 2026, and the preparation of the final report on the complete engagement within the scope of the work in question, with the consolidated results of all tests and inspections and the assessment of the bridge’s suitability for use in June 2026.

As for the cables on the bridge, the plan was to carry out their visual inspection in the period September - October 2025, and the examination of the condition of the cables along the length, that is, all wires inside the cables, using non-destructive methods in the period September - November 2025. Inspection of the complete steel structure of the bridge with an inspection of the anchors of the stay cables, without determining the condition of the cables along the length, including a visual inspection of visible parts of the bridge's pillars, was scheduled to be done from August 2025 to May 2026.

It is not yet known when a new tender will be announced for the inspection of this bridge, which is a steel structure with seven pillars which opened for use in 1980. The new rail bridge became the main rail bridge in Belgrade in July 2018, when passenger traffic from the former Main Rail Station in the Sava Amphitheater was completely suspended, and when the Old Rail Bridge over the Sava River was also closed to traffic, over which trains moved at a speed of only 9 kilometers per hour in the last years of its use.

As for the contracts for the three lots within which this tender was successful, for lot 2, i.e. the job of inspecting the approach structure on the Belgrade side of the rail bridge over the Sava with testing under test load and assessing suitability for use, it was awarded to the company Pro inzenjering doo Beograd as the contractor in a joint bid with the company Mostrpojekt ad Beograd. The value of this contract is 16.6 million dinars excluding VAT.

The same job, but on the New Belgrade side of the rail bridge over the Sava, i.e. lot 3, was awarded to the same group of bidders, but in this case the roles were reversed when it came to the contractor within their joint bid. The value of that part of the job is 18.7 million dinars excluding VAT, i.e. slightly more than the estimated value when the procurement was announced.

In a joint bid with Pro inzenjering, Mostprojekt also won lot 4, i.e. the task of comprehensively inspecting three smaller bridge structures from Belgrade to Zemun with testing under test load and assessing suitability for use. This job is worth 7.4 million dinars.

Lot 1, or the inspection of the condition of the New Rail Bridge with a proposal for its rehabilitation, was, as a reminder, the most valuable part of this tender and this job was estimated at 110 million dinars excluding VAT, while lot 5, or the preparation of a Study regarding the condition of the Bezanija tunnel, was estimated at 5 million dinars excluding VAT. The bid that was not accepted due to the significantly higher offered price (150.98 million dinars) for lot 1 was submitted by Freyssinet with Pro inzenjering and Mostprojekt.

D. Aleksic

Infrastruktura Železnice Srbije Beograd

Pro Inženjering d.o.o. Beograd

Mostprojekt a.d. Beograd

FREYSSINET SRBIJA DOO

Infrastruktura železnice Srbije ad Beograd

Serbian Railways Infrastructure

Pro inženjering doo Neograd

Mostprojrekt ad Beograd

Freyssinet

Freyssinet Srbija

New Rail Bridge Belgrade

analysis of condition of proposal for rehabilitation of New Rail Bridge over Sava River in Belgrade

rail tunnel Bežanijska kosa