Highways Agency - Safe roads, Reliable journeys, Informed travellers

Procurement

We are procuring the tunnel maintenance scheme through a Design, Build, Finance and Operate (DBFO) contract.  The basis was given in the Contract Notice published in the Official Journal of the European Union in November 2005 (Public Works Contract (Negotiated Procedure) Notice, reference 2005/S 214-211161).

The DBFO Contract will be awarded under the negotiated procedure applicable to Public Works Contracts under the Public Works Contract Regulations 1991 (SI 1991/2680) (the Regulations) that implement the Public Works Contracts Directive (93/37/EC).

The Contract Notice invited requests from interested parties to prequalify.  In the prequalification process, completed in March 2006, we identified 5 consortia who we considered have the capability and experience necessary for this work.

We invited them to submit outline proposals following which we asked three of these consortia to submit full tenders in early 2007.  The Agency has now announced that the preferred bidder to upgrade and the manage the M25 will be Connect Plus.

Connect Plus is a consortium consisting of Balfour Beatty, Skanska, Atkins and Egis Projects. Subject to the availability of funds and completion of statutory processes we expect to award the contract in early 2009.

We will also use the DBFO contract to provide the day to day maintenance work for the motorways and trunk roads in the Highways Agency Area 5, plus the Dartford Crossing over a 30 year period.

Area 5 comprises of the M25, the A282 Dartford Crossing and sections of the radial routes (like the M1, M3, M4 and M11) which cross the M25.