In Mykolaiv, a tender worth ₴86 million is being held for the third time for a shelter for a nursery school where urgent major repairs have not been completed since 2019

A shelter at a nursery school in Mykolaiv. File photo: Mykolaiv City Council

A tender is currently underway in Mykolaiv for the construction of a radiation shelter for nursery school №75.

This is according to data from the Prozorro public procurement system, as reported by NikVesti.

The tender for the construction of the shelter has been announced three times. The procurement was first published on 24 June with a value of 103.26 million hryvnias including VAT. On 10 July, the tender was re-advertised — this time with an estimated cost of 86.05 million hryvnias excluding VAT. The same amount excluding VAT was also stated in the third announcement on 28 July.

According to the technical specifications, the shelter will be sunk into the ground to a depth of approximately 4.6 metres. Its base and walls will be constructed from reinforced concrete: the walls will be between 30 and 50 centimetres thick. Concrete piles and waterproofing of the foundation are provided for to further reinforce the structure. Inside the shelter, brick internal walls and partitions are to be erected. A separate major block of works relates to the building services — heating, ventilation, water supply, drainage, electrical systems, fire protection, and so on.

A light-duty lift with a load capacity of 100 kg is also to be installed in the shelter. The environment will be barrier-free.

Once the shelter has been built, the contractor must carry out landscaping of the site. The project provides for over 1,280 square metres of concrete patterned paving slabs of varying thicknesses.

The project also includes the creation of lawns, flower beds and landscaping — boxwood, spindle tree, hazel, sage, echinacea, millet, feather grass and other plants will be planted there.

Three companies took part in the tender: ASTRA NORTH-WEST Ltd, «PGS BUD» LLC and Tanolbud Ltd. The client rejected the first company. The bid from «PGS BUD» LLC, amounting to 81 million hryvnias, is currently under consideration.

According to the YouControl analytical system, «PGS BUD» LLC was registered in Mykolaiv in October 2016. The company’s main activity is the construction of residential and non-residential buildings. The company’s authorised capital is 70,000 hryvnias. The owner and ultimate beneficial owner is Mykola Semenov.

It should be noted that the contracting authority for the works is the Capital Construction Department of the Mykolaiv City Council. The project is being implemented as part of the EU’s Ukraine Facility programme and is due to be completed by 28 December 2027.

Earlier, in a comment to NikVesti, the head of the Capital Construction Department, Oleksii Savchuk, stated that 18.32 million hryvnias in grants and 13.99 million hryvnias in co-funding were earmarked for Nursery School №75.

However, it should be noted that problems with the building of Kindergarten №75 began as far back as 2018, when defects were discovered there. It later emerged that the oldest group of children was offered a transfer to another educational institution from the section of the nursery where cracks had formed.On 14 June 2019, Nursery №75 was completely closed due to the building’s dilapidated condition. Then, in August, the Capital Construction Department of Mykolaiv City Council announced a tender worth 25 million hryvnias for the major refurbishment of the nursery.

As Oleksii Savchuk, head of the Capital Construction Department, explained, the shelter was initially planned as part of the nursery’s major refurbishment project. However, it subsequently became clear that the new shelter could not be built within the scope of this project.

«It is impossible to build the shelter as part of the nursery’s major refurbishment, because this would, at the very least, constitute a reconstruction... If it is a new shelter, then it is called a reconstruction; this is a completely different type of construction, which involves a change in functional purpose and a change in technical and economic parameters. And under civil defence regulations, a shelter must be treated as an existing structure during major refurbishment,» explained Oleksii Savchuk.

The official noted that the construction of the shelter should, in effect, be the first stage in the subsequent restoration of the nursery itself.

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