Strabag Hrvatska director Veljko Nizetic has said ahead of Tuesday's inauguration of Pelješac Bridge that the construction company will finish all works on access roads on time and in line with the contract.

The works are worth HRK 478.3 million without VAT and the deadline is 13 August.

Speaking to Hina, Nizetic said an annex to the contract signed during the works put the deadline earlier and that the works would be completed in line with the contract.

Under the contract, Strabag was given the construction of a route of over 10 km, including 1,300 m on the mainland and 9,220 m on the Peljesac peninsula. Strabag also built three underpasses, two tunnels, one viaduct, and two bridges.

Despite being satisfied with the work done, Nizetic pointed to the many problems affecting the construction industry in recent years, notably labour shortage. Most workers are from Croatia, followed by those from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and some are from Albania, he said, adding that soon they will probably have to hire workers from faraway countries.

Other major problems include higher construction material prices, disrupted supply chains, and higher energy prices.

The Croatian Bureau of Statistics has said that construction material producer prices in Croatia in June were 9.7% higher on the year and 17% higher than the 2015 average.

According to Nizetic, the costs should be split with investors. He said the problem was bigger for small contractors without enough capital to finance projects.

Nizetic said projects were many and that a lot of money was being absorbed from EU funds.

However, he called for caution, saying that builders were facing shocks on a daily bases due to the consequences of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, which result in losses.

He hopes that clients will take that into account and that new price calculation models will be defined in order to share the risk more fairly.

Nizetic recalled that Strabag has been in business in Croatia since 1996, that it has over 1,500 employees, and that it has participated in the construction of many important motorways and tunnels.

Strabag Hrvatska is also interested in a rail transport upgrade in Croatia. The HŽ Infrastruktura rail company has selected the Strabag AG-Strabag d.o.o.-Strabag Rail a.s consortium as the best bidder for reconstruction and construction works on the Hrvatski Leskovac-Karlovac railway. The bid is HRK 1.71 billion without VAT.

(€1 = HRK 7.5)