Procurement category: Infrastructure works

Environmental and social impacts targeted: Climate adaptation, flood prevention. 

Relevant EU legislation/policy/guidance: EU Adaptation Strategy; EU GPP criteria for Public space maintenance (2019) and Technical background report; Waste Water Infrastructure (2013) [JRC assessment on need for criteria update (2022)] and the Technical background report.

Lisbon: A city prone to floods 

Lisbon is a historic coastal city built across seven hills intersected by valleys. This topography makes the City of Lisbon prone to surface water flooding during intense rainfall. 

Lisbon is experiencing increasingly frequent and severe flood episodes, with notable extreme rainfall events in 1967, 1983, 2008, and 2014. These events had substantial impacts, especially in low-lying urban areas such as Baixa and Alcântara. With a death toll of 700, the 1967 flash flood was the deadliest in Portugal in the 20th century, and destroyed nearly 900 homes in the Lisbon metropolitan area. In 2014, Storm Hercules caused significant coastal flooding in the Lisbon area and led to more than €16 million in direct costs due to overtopping and hundreds of millions in indirect costs to affected businesses and populations. Land use intensification and climate change are exacerbating the city’s vulnerability, prompting the urgent need for a resilient and long-term solution.

A plan to increase urban resilience

In response to these challenges, the Lisbon City Council developed the Lisbon Drainage Master Plan (LDMP) for the construction of two major underground drainage tunnels and associated infrastructures. The project aims to reduce surface flooding, protect residents and infrastructure, and ensure the city’s preparedness for future climate-related events. Originally developed in 2008, the Plan was revised and approved in 2015 and came into force in 2016. 

The project is financed through a combination of Lisbon City Council funding and two loans of a total value of €140 million, secured from the European Investment Bank (EIB). The EIB loan covers approximately 100% of the €134 million (excluding VAT) estimated costs at the time of approval. The total value of the investment into the infrastructure project is estimated at €250 million for a 15-year implementation period. This significant public investment not only addresses pressing urban resilience needs but also integrates innovative and sustainable procurement practices. 

Procurement objectives

The design and construction of two large-scale drainage tunnels, the Monsanto–Santa Apolónia Tunnel (TMSA) and the Chelas–Beato Tunnel (TCB), aim to deliver an effective and durable solution to mitigate urban flooding and enhance public safety. Together with anti-pollution basins and other pieces of infrastructure, the works form a critical part of Lisbon’s long-term urban resilience strategy.

Besides the technical engineering and construction requirements, the procurement documents also integrated sustainability measures such as resource reuse, reduced emissions during construction, and water reuse. It also ensures the safety of workers and surrounding communities, and aims to minimise disruption to residents. 

The contract adopted a design–build model, combining the design and execution phases under a single contractual framework to enhance project integration, reduce risk fragmentation, and ensure delivery efficiency. 

Procurement procedure 

To prepare the tender, substantial research was undertaken. These included detailed geological and geotechnical studies, an Environmental Impact Statement (EIA) and associated Environmental Compliance Report (RECAPE). Furthermore, consultations with key infrastructure stakeholders, including Lisbon Metro, the Port of Lisbon Administration, and water and electricity utility companies, took place. 

In 2018, Lisbon City Council launched a Public Competition with International Advertising, in line with the Portuguese Public Contracts Code and relevant EU legislation. However, as none of the four bids received met the conditions for award, the open competition was revoked in December 2018. 

The international open competition was relaunched in 2019, with a new base value of €140 million. During this second attempt, 9 bids were received. Following the evaluation of tenders and approval by the Lisbon City Council, the contract was awarded in April 2021. The €132.9 million (excluding VAT) public contract with a delivery period of 38 months was awarded to the Mota-Engil / SPIE Batignolles Internacional consortium. Mota-Engil is a Portuguese civil construction, public works, port operations, waste, water, and logistics group. Spie Batignolles is a French construction and infrastructure company operating in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal and Switzerland.

The works officially commenced in late 2022, following a design phase. During the execution phase, archaeological findings were discovered, which led to a pause in the construction works. The completion of the works is expected in 2026, subject to final excavation progress and site-specific constraints.

Technical specifications

The technical requirements for the project were carefully designed to meet both the engineering demands of large-scale urban drainage infrastructure and the city’s broader environmental objectives. The contract covered the design and execution of two main drainage tunnels — TMSA (Monsanto–Santa Apolónia) and TCB (Chelas–Beato) — each with an internal diameter of 5.5 metres, alongside anti-pollution basins, pumping stations, and significant surface requalification works.

Environmental requirements

The technical requirements embedded strong sustainability provisions, as outlined in the terms of reference. The contractors were obliged to:

1. Implement an Environmental Management System: The contractor is obliged to implement and maintain an environmental management system throughout the project’s execution. At the bidding stage, companies had to present their approach to environmental management in their offers.
2. Prepare and execute an Environmental Management Plan during the entire construction phase.
3. Prepare and implement a Construction and Demolition Waste Prevention and Management Plan, with clear methodologies for material reuse, recycling, and safe disposal. This plan had to follow a model provided by the Portuguese Environmental Agency (APA), in line with the legal requirements set out in Portuguese waste legislation. The bidders had to address it in their offers, and the selected contractor would be contractually bound to deliver on it.
4. Plan for environmental monitoring and legal compliance: by presenting a Monitoring and Prevention Plan and a Legal Compliance Verification Plan, based on the applicable legal and regulatory framework (e.g., Decree-Law No. 178/2006), bidders had to describe their approach in their offers, and the contractor is contractually obliged to deliver and implement the plans during execution.
5. Manage water, noise, dust, and emissions impacts in line with the Environmental Impact Statement (EIA) and national regulations. This also includes the prevention of soil and aquifer contamination from fuel handling and machinery, and construction and demolition waste management. Bidders had to describe their management strategies in their offers, and the contractor was contractually obliged to implement them.
6. Restore construction sites and surrounding areas to their pre-existing environmental conditions. This includes the protection of trees and vegetation near work zones. Plants damaged by the construction site have to be replaced with local species, supported by a detailed planting plan.
7. Carry out the recovery of the landscape in all areas temporarily occupied by the construction sites. This includes the careful removal, storage in non-compacted heaps with proper drainage and reapplication of the topsoil to preserve soil fertility. Bidders had to detail in their offers how they would carry out the careful removal, and the contractor is contractually bound to implement them.
8. Use recycled water from wastewater treatment plants where possible (e.g., for cleaning, bentonite preparation). Furthermore, sewer inspection and cleaning vehicles must be equipped with water recycling systems.
9. Prepare and submit to the relevant authorities an Environmental Compliance Report for the Execution Project (RECAPE). This legal obligation was transposed as a requirement in the tender documents. The RECAPE requires to have a risk management plan, construction and demolition waste prevention, and the mandatory use of BIM for lifecycle monitoring.

These obligations aim to preserve the integrity of the project area and ensure that all applicable environmental laws and standards are upheld during the execution of the drainage tunnel works in Lisbon. Tenderers were required to submit comprehensive documentation supporting their approach to these requirements. 

In terms of lifecycle management, the project mandated the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM), including the submission of a BIM Execution Plan (PEB), and use of BIM throughout the design, execution, operation and maintenance phases, to optimise planning, reduce errors, improve data transparency and enable future infrastructure resilience.

Decent working conditions requirements

At the peak of the work, approximately 450 workers are expected to be working on-site simultaneously.  Legal obligations to comply with labour law and occupational health and safety legislation were transposed into the contract documents and reinforced through contractual penalties and joint liability clauses, ensuring accountability throughout the subcontracting chain. To ensure good working conditions on the construction sites and surrounding areas, the contractors were required to:

• Comply with all applicable labour legislation, including rules on employment conditions, safety, and workers' rights. The main contractor is held jointly liable for ensuring that any subcontractors also comply with all required labour laws. Violations of labour laws by the contractor or its subcontractors may result in contractual penalties or termination.
• Submit a Health and Safety Plan and comply with national and EU safety legislation.
• Prepare and implement a Risk Management Plan.

Selection criteria 

The contract was awarded through a competitive international public tender assessed under the Most Economically Advantageous Tender (MEAT) criterion, in accordance with the Portuguese Public Contracts Code. This approach allowed the Lisbon City Council to consider both price and quality dimensions, ensuring the selected contractor could deliver a technically robust, environmentally sustainable, and socially responsible project.

The tender evaluation was based on the following weighted criteria:

• Technical merit of the proposal – 45%, which included sub-criteria on the project’s sustainability.
• Price – 50%
• Execution deadline – 5%

The technical merit component was assessed using sub-criteria such as:

• Construction methodology and phasing, especially in complex urban environments with surface and underground constraints.
• Environmental performance, including mitigation of emissions, noise, dust, and management of construction and demolition waste.
• Risk management strategies, including safety protocols and archaeological risk mitigation. The evaluation assessed whether the risk management plan provided a complete analysis and assessment of the risks, presented detailed mitigation strategies, and was aligned with the overall project work plan.  

Results

The Lisbon Drainage Master Plan represents a step forward in enhancing the city’s resilience to extreme weather events. The construction of the two drainage tunnels, with a total length of approximately 6 km and a 5.5 m internal diameter, aims to increase Lisbon’s capacity to manage extreme rainfall events. Once operational, the tunnels are expected to mitigate 70% to 80% of the city’s current flood risks.

Designed for a 100-year return period, the infrastructure forms a long-term, adaptive solution to increasingly frequent and intense rain events driven by climate change. By addressing long-standing vulnerabilities to flooding and integrating sustainability across the procurement process, the project delivers both environmental and social co-benefits that extend beyond the infrastructure provision.

Environmental impacts

The tender incorporated a range of Green Public Procurement measures designed to reduce the project’s environmental footprint and deliver co-benefits, including: 

Nature restoration obligations: The contract required nature restoration and soil protection measures, including safeguarding existing vegetation, replanting affected areas with species listed in the landscaping Bill of Quantities, and stripping and reapplying topsoil to preserve its fertility.  These measures help maintain biodiversity in urban areas, prevent erosion, and support ecosystem recovery once construction is complete.

Construction & Demolition Waste Management plan: This requirement, drawn from the EIA and integrated into the contract, ensures systematic sorting, reuse and recycling of waste materials. Such plans help reduce landfilling, lower the demand for virgin aggregates, and cut embodied carbon in large-scale works.

Water reuse infrastructure: The project includes a purple-pipe network for non-potable water reuse, explicitly foreseen in the Master Plan and embedded in the tender’s Bills of Quantities. This system will allow treated wastewater to be used for irrigation, street cleaning and firefighting, reducing pressure on potable water resources and helping Lisbon adapt to changing rainfall patterns. The integration of anti‑pollution basins capture will help to pre-treat rainwater before discharge, thus reducing pollution to the Tagus River. Therefore, the project is supporting circular water reuse and conserving potable water. 

Environmental monitoring: The procurement documents mandated continuous environmental monitoring, covering dust, noise, air quality, aquifer protection and compliance with waste legislation. By linking these EIA requirements to contract performance, the city ensured that pollution risks are controlled during construction and that remedial measures can be triggered swiftly if thresholds are exceeded. The project also aimed to reduce waste and landfilling through the management of construction and demolition waste.

Use of BIM and GIS: The tender introduced digital innovation through mandatory BIM and GIS integration. Contractors were required to prepare a BIM Execution Plan and deliver as-built BIM models linked to GIS systems, extending beyond legal obligations.  This digital backbone improves the efficiency of resource use, reduces rework through better planning, and provides a long-term tool for monitoring environmental performance throughout the lifecycle of the tunnels.

Economic impacts

Reduced flood damage: While the project represents one of the city’s largest investments, it is projected to prevent severe economic disruption caused by floods. It aims to reduce potential damage to homes, businesses, the transport and tourism sectors, especially in central districts. For instance, the 2022 floods caused damage estimated at €49 million to infrastructure, public equipment, economic activities, commerce and services, and private homes.

Cultural heritage protection

The infrastructure project is also designed to safeguard historically vulnerable urban areas such as Baixa, Alcântara, and Santa Apolónia. Specific protocols have been implemented to manage the works in archaeologically and culturally sensitive areas, to preserve Lisbon’s built heritage in parallel with the delivery of modern infrastructure.

Lessons learned

• A long-term adaptation strategy: Designed for a 100-year return period, the drainage master plan represents a long-term vision for climate adaptation. This strategic vision was embedded from the outset of the procurement procedure, ensuring that the project contributes to broader public policy objectives.
• Use of the MEAT award criterion: This project demonstrates that even large, complex infrastructure works, typically associated with large investments, can be designed and procured to provide environmental benefits and provide value-for-money. The project went beyond minimum compliance and focus on the lowest price by integrating binding environmental requirements into both the technical specifications and award criteria. Tenderers were required to submit robust and verifiable plans. This ensured that sustainability was not an afterthought but a central feature of bid assessment.
• Use of digital innovations: The mandatory use of BIM for both design and operational planning is a notable innovation. Many large-scale infrastructure projects still treat BIM as optional or limited to design phases. BIM was integrated with GIS systems to allow real-time planning, performance monitoring, and future asset management — a practice that enhances transparency and lifecycle sustainability.
• Holistic risk and stakeholder management: From the early geotechnical and archaeological studies to stakeholder consultation and phased construction planning, the project shows how major works can be carried out in constrained urban environments with reduced disruption. The coordination with utility providers, cultural heritage bodies, and local communities was embedded into the tendering and design process from the outset.
• Political alignment and governance: The political approval from Lisbon City Council prior to the launch of the tender helped ensure institutional alignment. The project is managed by a dedicated Drainage Plan team, which allowed for continuous coordination and responsiveness throughout the procurement and execution phases.

More information

For related information, please see the Waste Water Infrastructure (2013) [JRC assessment on need for criteria update (2022)] and the Technical background report.

The Lisbon Drainage Master Plan (LDMP)  

Tender documents are available online on TED and results are available online on TED.