Public procurement notice: Modification Of A Contract/Concession During Its Term
Published: 2020-06-09
Buyer: Highways England
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Open procedure
CPV classification: 71311000: Civil engineering consultancy services | 71320000

Technical requirements: The A303 Amesbury to Berwick Down serves the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site currently forming a bottleneck for users of the route resulting in an adverse impact on the cultural heritage landscape, the surrounding natural environment and the community of Winterbourne Stoke. There is severe congestion, particularly during the summer months, in addition to poor safety performance. The proposed scheme forms part of a package of proposals for the A303/A30/A358 corridor to improve the vital connection between the South West, London and the South East, and includes the upgrade of remaining single carriageway sections on the route to dual carriageway. As part of the proposals, this scheme was stated as a priority project in the National Infrastructure Plan 2014, and was listed within the top 40 priority infrastructure projects. The Road Investment Strategy (2015-2020) originally stated that construction would start within this roads period (i.e. by the end of March 2020), subject to necessary approvals and the scheme continuing to demonstrate value for public money, The principal objectives of the scheme, which were set out in the client scheme requirements were:
— cultural heritage: to contribute to the conservation and enhancement of the world heritage site by improving access both within and to the site;
—environment and community: to contribute to the enhancement of the historic landscape within the World Heritage Site (WHS), to improve biodiversity along the route and to provide a positive legacy to communities adjoining the road;
— economic growth: in combination with other schemes on the route, to enable growth in jobs and housing by providing a free flowing and reliable connection between the East and the South West peninsula;
— transport: to create a high quality route that resolves current and predicted traffic problems and contributes towards the creation of an express-way between London and the south west. The status of the scheme at this contract award was at the options phase, with consultations planned, which included the preferred route announcement. Design and construction support was required from Spring/Summer 2017, with a development consent order application made in October 2018. Highways England was seeking a technical partner to provide leading expertise in the key disciplines outlined below in order to ensure the successful delivery of this high profile project within its investment parameters. The technical partner needed to demonstrate appropriate behaviours to work collaboratively with the Highways England team and extensive experience in the development and delivery of large complex transport infrastructure schemes in the current UK planning environment. This was a long term appointment required to support an accelerated delivery schedule. The successful technical partner was required to work in collaboration with multiple partners to provide:
— world class technical expertise in complex infrastructure projects including, but not limited to, tier one project governance and process, highway design, tunnels and projects of significant cultural importance and sensitivity and in all disciplines needed for the design, consent and success of the Project;
— excellent people, teams, proactive management and behaviour, and alignment to the success of the project;
— the capacity to fully support the employer in successful delivery of the project. The contract was let under the Terms of the NEC3 Professional Services Contract (Option G) as adopted/modified by Highways England. The contract was advertised via OJEU (Open Procedure). Services are placed via task orders and are paid for as:
— target price; or — Time charge. Highways England select the appropriate payment approach for each task order.
Appeals must be lodged in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (SI 2015 No 102) as amended.
The scheme is currently in the procurement phase therefore the technical partner will still be required to work in collaboration with multiple partners to provide:
— world class technical expertise in complex infrastructure projects including, but not limited to, tier one project governance and process, highway design, tunnels and projects of significant cultural importance and sensitivity and in all disciplines needed for the design, consent and success of the project; aspects of the nature of services have changed in quantum and now include the following:
1) Additional work to prepare a new strategy that aligns with the new government policy that moved away from Design, Build, Finance and Operate model;
3) Further consultation required with third parties and statutory consultees during the Development Consent Order (DCO) examination.
4) Further site investigations needed as a result of refining the tunnel route during design development.


Winner: Aecom Ltd