Gloucestershire County Council has published the contract notice for its M5 Junction 10 Improvements Scheme, valued at £200m.
The council is also due to launch a statutory consultation on the scheme next week.
In March 2020, it was announced that the council’s bid for Housing Infrastructure Fund cash for the scheme had been successful and in June, it said that plans ‘have since been accelerated’.
Last autumn the council carried out an options consultation and in June of this year it announced option 2 as its preferred design, which it said was the favourite.
This option involves upgrading the existing junction with a grade separated roundabout centred on the existing junction.
The successful tenderer will be asked to enter into two ‘separate, but linked’ agreements for delivery of the whole project: an NEC4 Professional Services Contract main Option E for the carrying out of advisory and consultancy services; and an NEC4 Engineering and Construction Contract main Option C for detailed design and construction.
According to the contract notice, the objectives are to:
- support economic growth and facilitate growth in jobs and housing by providing improved transport network connections in west and north-west Cheltenham
- provide the transport connections and network capacity in west and north-west Cheltenham to facilitate the delivery of housing and economic development sites allocated or safeguarded in the Joint Core Strategy
- provide a transport network in the west and north-west Cheltenham area with the levels of service, safety and accessibility to meet current and future needs.
- deliver a package of measures which is in keeping with the local environment , minimises any adverse environmental impacts and meets GCC’s ambition on sustainable growth, decarbonisation and net bio-diversity net gain
- provide greater connectivity between the strategic road network (M5) and the transport network in west and north-west Cheltenham.
- provide a more integrated transport network by providing opportunities to switch to more sustainable transport modes within and to west, north-west and central Cheltenham.
According to the council’s webpage for the scheme, ‘it is currently anticipated that the junction will be open in 2024’.
However, the contract notice states: ‘The planned commencement date is July 2022 and the planned completion date is November 2025.’
