Highways England has announced the 13 contractors that have secured places on its Regional Delivery Partnership frameworks covering £8.7bn worth of work.
The deals, developed under the Routes to Market programme, provide incentives for companies to produce better outcomes under the contract, including:
- Shorter duration and more accurate management of roadworks to help drivers better plan their journeys and experience predictable journey times
- Buying more efficiently and buying locally - using the capability of a region to benefit the region
- Encouraging innovation, for example lighting and signs designed to need less maintenance, reducing disruption and improving road worker safety
- Reduced road noise and increased environmental benefits
Highways England chief executive, Jim O’Sullivan told HIghways that part of the reason for the move to the new model was to remove the need for single contract bidding. A process that can cost contractors around £2m for big schemes he said. This new approach provides a secure pipeline of work, with contractors likely to win future work based on specific past performance.
'Routes to Market represents a fundamental change in the way we deliver road projects. It will be performance rather than price based, focusing on building the right projects with the best outcomes for road users and the communities we serve,' he said.
'It demands a major step up in our supply chain to embrace innovation and team work and in their ability to deliver value.'
The 13 companies – known as Delivery Integration Partners – will develop, design and construct highway projects across England from 2019 through to 2024.
The value of work allocated across the 13 companies is as follows - the values mentioned are shared between suppliers on the lot over a six year period (includes RIS1 budget and RIS2 estimate):
- Lot 1 – South West & Midlands - £200m – two partners: Geoffrey Osborne Ltd; and Griffiths / Farrans Joint Venture (Alun Griffiths (Construction) Ltd and Northstone (NI) Limited trading as Farrans Construction)
- Lot 2 – South East & East - £350m - two partners: John Graham Construction Ltd; and Volker Fitzpatrick Ltd
- Lot 3 – North West, North East, Yorkshire & Humber - £200m - two partners: Amey Sir Robert McAlpine Joint Venture (Amey OW Ltd and Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd); and North Midland Construction Plc
- Lot 4 – South West - £800m - two partners: Galliford Try Infrastructure Ltd; and Taylor Woodrow
- Lot 5 – Midlands - £1,250m - two partners: BAM Nuttall Ltd; and Skanska Construction UK Ltd
- Lot 6 – South East - £1,100m - two partners: BAM Nuttall Ltd; and Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering Ltd
- Lot 7 – East - £2,800m - three partners: Costain Ltd; Galliford Try Infrastructure Ltd; and Skanska Construction UK Ltd
- Lot 8 – North West, North East, Yorkshire & Humber - £2,000m - three partners: Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering Ltd; Costain Ltd; and Kier Highways Ltd
The work is arranged into 18 Packages of schemes, awarded to Delivery Integration Partners in bands of up to £100m (lots 1 to 3) and over £100m (lots 4 to 8).
