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RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 1153
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C O N F I D E N T I A L TIRANA 000995 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/21/2016 
TAGS: EINV ELTN PGOV ECON EFIN AL ZL
SUBJECT: IMPEDIMENT TO BECHTEL BID TO BUILD KEY SECTION OF 
HIGHWAY BETWEEN KOSOVO AND DURRES 
 
REF: 2004 TIRANA 00159 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Marcie B. Ries, Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
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Summary 
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¶1. (C) Bechtel Corporation on August 7 was selected by the 
Albanian Ministry of Transportation (MOT) to build a 60 km. 
segment of difficult mountain road on the main route between 
the Adriatic port of Durres and the town of Kukes, in 
northeastern Albania near the Kosovo border.  When completed, 
this will become a major trade corridor, providing Adriatic 
port access to Kosovo and southern Serbia.  Minister of 
Transport Basha on September 20 told Ambassador Ries that the 
World Bank (WB) considers the selection process, in which a 
WB-recommended consultant evaluated four companies on eight 
criteria, non-competitive and is pressuring the MOT to 
re-tender.  The WB also wants the MOT to re-specify the 
project as a two-lane instead of a four-lane highway to 
reduce costs.  The MOT argues that time is money, and 
re-tendering will delay construction by at least a year.  The 
MOT also insists on four lanes for safety reasons, and 
because a four-lane highway would increase the capacity for 
freight.  This project is important for the economic 
development of Albania, especially the impoverished north, 
and could also give positive impetus to Kosovo's economy by 
providing ready access to a seaport.  End Summary. 
 
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Expedient Selection 
------------------- 
¶2. (SBU) Albania's Ministry of Transport in July 2006 
announced an international tender to rebuild and improve a 60 
km. segment of road along the route connecting the Adriatic 
port of Durres with Pristina, capital of Kosovo.  The segment 
lies between the towns of Kalimash and Rreshen through the 
rugged mountains of northeastern Albania, and is the last of 
three segments to be renovated/rebuilt on this highway. 
Completion is expected in early 2009. The project is 
economically important to both Albania and Kosovo, since it 
will provide access to the Adriatic port of Durres from 
Kosovo and southern Serbia.  The MOT's selection process was 
designed to minimize the time required before construction 
could begin. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Four companies -- Bechtel (UK office), Strabag 
(Germany), Al Kharafi Group (Kuwait), and Konstruktor 
(Croatia) -- submitted proposals focusing not on the project 
itself, but on the company's ability to do the job.  An 
evaluation committee led by Dutch Ecorys Group, one of the 
companies recommended by the WB, evaluated the bidders on 
eight criteria, such as experience on regional projects, unit 
pricing models, and annual turnover, and selected Bechtel on 
August 7.  Because Ecorys evaluated the responses of each 
company to only these eight criteria, the evaluation took 
only a matter of days.  The MOT expects to conclude price 
negotiations with Bechtel and issue a Government decision 
approving the contract by the end of September. 
 
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Financing 
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¶4. (C) The GOA is planning to finance the Rreshin - Kalimash 
project through USD 350 million budget financing over four 
years, supplemented by institutional loans, and set a target 
cost of USD 500 million. (Note: This target cost was not made 
public and has been misreported by the press.)  Potential 
lenders/donors that have expressed interest include Ex-Im, 
the European Investment Bank, the Kuwait Development Bank, 
the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), and the 
Islamic Development Bank.  Minister of Transport Basha on 
September 20 told Ambassador Ries that Bechtel would meet the 
target price.  The segment between Kukes and the Kosovo 
border has already been awarded to seven Albanian companies 
at a total cost of USD 70 million and construction has begun. 
 A short segment near the western end, between the towns of 
Milot and Rreshen, is currently out for bid and will be 
financed by the WB. 
 
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The WB Objects 
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¶5. (C) Although the WB does not have a financial stake in the 
Kalimash-Rreshen project, Prime Minister Berisha on September 
15 told Ambassador Ries that he had heard the WB was unhappy 
with the way Bechtel was chosen and would oppose the project. 
 Minister of Transportation Basha on September 17 told the 
Ambassador that World Bank Country Director for South-East 
Europe, Orsalia Kalantzopoulos, told him she strongly opposed 
the project, citing potential problems with Belgrade and 
Athens.  According to Basha, the WB says the selection of 
Bechtel was non-competitive, and all bidders should have been 
asked for pricing proposals.  In addition, the WB is 
insisting on a two-lane highway to keep costs down. 
 
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Basha Counters 
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¶6. (C) Basha told the Ambassador that the selection of 
Bechtel was done transparently (the WB does not dispute the 
transparency of the process) and in accordance with EU norms. 
 He said the MOT chose this selection methodology to save 
time, emphasizing that the company used by the GOA to 
evaluate the bids was the one recommended by the WB. 
Further, the Bank had evinced no objections when the 
competition was held.  It was only very recently, when 
Kalantzopoulos visited, that she raised objections. 
Evaluating and comparing different unit pricing models from 
multiple bidders could have delayed start of construction by 
a year.  According to Basha, the costs of such projects 
increase every year.  In addition, he calculates that the net 
economic benefit to Albania of a completed, four-lane highway 
will be over USD 80 million per year, so that a year's delay 
could cost the country well over USD 100 million.  Basha also 
said that a Slovenian engineering company did an independent 
rough estimate of the cost, and came up with much higher 
figures than Bechtel's. 
 
¶7. (C) As for the four-lane argument, Basha pointed out that 
the two-lane highway the WB insisted on from Durres to the 
northern city of Shkoder is one of the most dangerous in 
Albania, despite the fact that the terrain is relatively 
flat.  He will not budge on a four-lane highway from Durres 
to the Kosovo border for safety reasons, since the road is a 
twisty, mountainous road expected to support heavy truck 
traffic, and subject to snow and ice during the winter. 
Although initial costs will be higher than for a two-lane 
road, he expects a higher economic return since a four-lane 
road will attract more commercial truck traffic.  He also 
pointed out that widening a two-lane highway in the future 
would be much more expensive than building a four-lane road 
in the first place. 
 
¶8. (C) Concerning Kalantzopoulos' political arguments, Basha 
said he has discussed the project with his Serbian and Greek 
counterparts, and received no objections from them.  He also 
told the Ambassador that Kalantzopoulos had raised concerns 
about this highway diverting freight coming from Serbia and 
Kosovo to Thessaloniki.  While he agreed that cargo from the 
southern Serbian town of Nis could reach Durres in about four 
hours on the new road, roughly the same time it now takes to 
go to Thessaloniki, he said that Durres should be seen not as 
a competitor to the port of Thessaloniki, but as a 
complimentary seaport to others in the region, and as part of 
an overall regional transportation plan.  Basha mentioned 
that Kalantzopoulos had opposed and shut down other Albanian 
infrastructure projects, including a thermal power plant in 
Fier and a General Electric bid on a USD 73 million rail 
project.  (Please see reftel.  GE is currently suing the GOA 
for breach of contract.) 
 
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Tom Ridge Will Advise 
--------------------- 
¶9. (C) Minister Basha said that former Secretary of Homeland 
Security, and now advisor to the PM, Tom Ridge, would 
evaluate the proposal and advise the GOA on a course of 
action.  Basha thinks that Ridge might ask him to come to 
Washington to promote the project. 
 
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Comment 
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¶10. (C) Albania's poor infrastructure is high on everyone's 
list of obstacles to economic growth.  A transport corridor 
 
 
 
connecting Kosovo to the Adriatic would not only help 
Albania's trade, but Kosovo's as well.  We ought to work with 
the GOA to help resolve whatever objections the World Bank 
might have. 
RIES