Asset Delivery (AD) Area 13 Maintenance & Response (M&R) Contract

Concepts

• highway maintenance
• guildford
• road maintenance works
• m&r contract
• maintenance
• m&r
• the next maintenance & response contracts
• maintenance and response contract
• the m&r contracts
• incident response

Location

Cumbria & Lancashire

Description

This VEAT Notice relates to a Deed of Variation to a National Highways' Maintenance and Response Contract. This Contract currently provides and undertakes all cyclical and reactive maintenance, incident response, defect rectification and severe weather delivery on the trunk roads and motorways within Cumbria & Lancashire (National Highways Area 13) (the "Contract"). Duties also include maintenance of roadside technology, the provision of traffic management for the contractor, maintenance and incident response activities, and traffic management for others who may be working on the network. The variation will add a section of the A69 from the M6 Junction to the County boundary into the Contract which is currently maintained under a Design Build Finance & Operate ("DBFO") contract which is due to expire on 31 March 2026. Consequently the total value of the Contract will increase by approximately 59%. It will also shorten the Contract which will have a new end date of 6 June 2029 instead of 31 March 2032 in order to align with the procurement process for the next Maintenance & Response contracts.

Total Quantity or Scope

The Design Build Finance Operate (DBFO) contract covers Section of A69 to Cumbria/ Northumberland county boundary and is due to expire on 31 March 2026. National Highways therefore must appoint an alternative maintenance contractor and it considers that the scope of these works is already included within this existing Maintenance and Response Contract. Therefore these roads will be incorporated into the existing Maintenance and Response (M&R) Contract for Area 13 of the Strategic Road Network following the award of the Deed of Variation. This together with the need for national alignment of the M&R contracts, ready for their next iteration, means that the term of the Area 13 M&R Contract will be shortened and will have a new end date of 6th June 2029 instead of 31st March 2032. These changes will increase the awarded value from £ 153,000,000 to £ 242,590,000.

Award Detail

CPV Codes

• 45233139 - Highway maintenance work
• 45233130 - Construction work for highways
• 45233140 - Roadworks
• 45233141 - Road-maintenance works
• 45310000 - Electrical installation work
• 71300000 - Engineering services

Indicators

Legal Justification

The modifications to the Contract fall within the permissible grounds set out under Regulation 72(1)(e) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 in that the modifications are not substantial within the meaning of Regulation 72(8) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 because: The inclusion of Design Build Finance and Operate (DBFO) roads into the Contract and the extension of term does not render the Contract materially different compared to when it was originally procured. The type of work originally required of the Contract (i.e. maintenance and response) is the same as that which it will carry out on the previous DBFO stretches of the Strategic Road Network, it is just a case that the total lane coverage to be maintained under the Contract increases. The original procured value was also £412,040,970 so the increase in value is also within the expectations of the original procurement. The extension of term is to align all M&R Contracts to enable an efficient and consistent re-procurement of the programme. Adding the additional roads and the extension of terms would not have changed the outcome of the original procurement in any way. The Contract will be fully operated in accordance with their current terms and pricing so scores would not have differed and any successful operator would be offered the extension to ensure alignment with the wider M&R procurement programme. Again, the value remains within the original advertised value; As the current Contract will be operated for the new roads on the same terms and pricing, this does not alter the economic balance of the Contract in favour of the contractor. The additional works during the extended term will be on the same pricing; The change does not considerably alter the scope of the Contract as the works and services provided will remain unchanged, the new value is still below the originally advertised value and the roads have been included in this Contract because they are adjacent in terms of geographical scope also; This is not a change in contractor. The Deed of Variation ensures continuity of service on the Strategic Road Network and aligns with National Highways' wider asset delivery and procurement strategy, thereby safeguarding public value and network integrity. The Contract is being shortened to better align with the re-procurement strategy for all Maintenance & Response contracts. It would provide significant technical difficulties and duplication of procurement costs for National Highways to procure a contractor simply for this short stretch of network given the current re-procurement strategy.