National Highways has named over 20 proposed renewal and enhancement projects spanning the next five years with a total estimated value of roughly £8.5bn.
The 24 projects consist of seven confirmed schemes – three enhancements and four large renewals projects – and a further 17 pipeline schemes that are currently in development. Although the national operator stressed that the plans could be subject to change.
Confirmed Enhancement Schemes:
- A38 Derby Junctions - £656.2m, 2026 – 2028
- A46 Newark Bypass - £676m, 2026 – 2029
- A66 Northern Trans-Pennine - £2,670.6m, 2027 – 2030
Confirmed Large Renewals Projects:
- M5 Wynhol Viaduct - £286.8m, 2026 – 2029
- A27 Arundel Rail Bridge - £90m, 2026 – 2029
- M32 Eastville Viaduct - £421.7m, 2027 – 2029
- M42 NWFFL Eastway Bridge - £273.4m, 2026 – 2029
The largest of the pipeline projects still being developed is the M1 Junction 13, which is expected to take place between 2027 and 2029 and has an estimated value of over £1bn.
Jo Jarvis, director of indirects and roads procurement at National Highways, presented the pipeline at an industry event.
She said: ‘You will recall that this time last year, I told you that there would be three routes to market; that was going to be SDF 2 [Scheme Delivery Framework 2], our own finder tender service, and, of course, some of the other routes, including things like CWAS [Construction Works and Associated Services framework].
'Some of you will also know that CWAS is late being put in play, so actually, that is giving us time to think and to consider what we are doing. I think it's fair to say that early works on these schemes are likely to go through SDF, whether that's one or two; if they are early works to get us on scheme, we'll likely go through it.
‘All of the other works will potentially be design and build; they might go through band A on SDF2. A lot, I will think, will come out of the "find a tender" service. Now, we are going to do our utmost to try and make sure that we pull these together and make sure that we can answer that in a really easy way.'
‘What we don't want to do,' she added, ‘is flood the market with loads and loads of tenders, so we are trying to look at all those dates to make sure that we can put that in place well.'
When it comes to each of the projects listed, Ms Jarvis made it clear that there would be more than one opportunity to work on each of them.
‘For every single one of these schemes that you see, there are probably five or six contracts. There's a design and build contract, there's a professional services contract, there's a costing framework that needs to go with it and some cost estimation that's got to go with it. There'll be all sorts of professional services and testing around it. So actually, the size, in terms of the procurement, is huge for us.'
