Highways Agency calls for M25 widening bids to be resubmitted

Bidders for the mammoth £5 billion M25 widening project are being asked to resubmit their tenders.

The Highways Agency is calling in the three consortia for a meeting next Friday where they will be told which parts of their bids are unsatisfactory.

The agency will spell out the areas of the bids that need improving throwing up yet more expensive bid work for contractors.

One of the firms involved said: “They’ll tell us that this is our opportunity to change the bits that they don’t like and to price them.” Bidders will then have just four weeks to work on the changes before resubmitting tenders with final prices on 22 February.

Yet despite the impending workload, contractors have welcomed the move as proof of the agency’s commitment to get the scheme started next year.

One, who asked not be named, said: “It’s potentially quite a lot of work and we’re mobilising all the people we can to get ready. It’s going to be intense.

“But we’re pleased because it seems the Highways Agency is trying to get a bidder in by March, rather than dragging out the whole process.”

The agency said it hopes to announce the contract award this year and that work could start in early 2009 Đ subject to successful completion of statutory procedures.

Work is being offered as a single Design Build Finance Operate contract. £1.5 billion of the budget is being spent on the phased widening of 63 miles of the motorway.

Most of this will focus on sections that currently have three lanes, giving four lanes in each direction when complete. The job is expected to take seven years to finish.

The winning contractor will also be required to keep the motorway and its structures, including the Hatfield tunnel and Dartford Crossing, in good condition over a 30-year period.

The trio bidding for the job are: Amey/Laing O’Rourke/Ferrovial Agroman; Connect Plus (Balfour Beatty, Skanska, Atkins and Egis Projects); and Flow (Vinci, Autoroutes Du Sud De La France, Laing Roads, Carillion, Costain, Ringway, Mouchel Parkman, Norwest Holst and Jacobs).

The Bell Common Tunnel at Epping in Essex is also within the remit of the maintenance contract and will be included once its Ł91.3 million refurbishment is completed.

Two bidders, Costain and Balfour Beatty/Skanska, are still battling it out for the work. This is due to be awarded in May.

Four firms up for M4 improvements

Four firms are battling it out for a £62.6 million job to improve Junction 11 on the M4 for Reading Borough Council.

Laing O’Rourke, Nuttall, Costain and Hochtief are all bidding for the works. Amec was originally in the running but pulled out after it decided the job wasn’t cost effective.

Works involve building a new junction around the existing one and turning motorway bridges into priority routes for public transport, cyclists and pedestrians.

A new junction at Mereoak is also part of the project.

Analysis: A project this size must be right from the start

By Alasdair Reisner

Like the road it is set to widen, the M25 Design Build Finance Operate scheme has not exactly developed a reputation for speedy progress.

Having been advertised in November 2005, procurement of the contract has made crawler lane-like progress through its bidding, with its three competing teams expected to commit thousands of man hours to what must, at times, seem like a near-endless series of submissions and interviews.

But there is a very clear reason why all three are prepared to put themselves through this slog.

Put simply the prize to go to the winning bidder is the largest single road building contract the country has ever seen.

Valued in excess of £5 billion, it dwarfs the turnover of all but the largest firms in the bid teams.

Other projects like the 2012 Olympics and Crossrail might, to the casual observer, seem sexier but any blunders on this will be big news.

Taxpayers’ money is at stake so getting the procurement right even at this late stage is worth the extra effort.