Asset Delivery Maintenance & Response East Region

Concepts

• highway maintenance
• guildford
• road maintenance works
• area 6&8 east region
• maintenance
• asset delivery maintenance & response east region
• incident response
• maintenance and response contract
• severe weather delivery
• the next maintenance & response contracts

Location

Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk with traffic management function in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire (Area 6&8 East Region)

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 Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk with traffic management function in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire (Area 6&8 East Region) (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 two sections of road into the Contract covering the A1(m) Alconbury to Peterborough and the M40 which are currently maintained under Design Build Finance & Operate ("DBFO") contracts due to expire on 31 March 2026 and 5 January 2027. Consequently the total value of the Contract will increase by approximately 24%. It will also shorten the Contract which will have a new end date of 1st July 2029 instead of 30th September 2034 in order to align with the procurement process for the next Maintenance & Response contracts.

Total Quantity or Scope

A Design Build Finance Operate (DBFO) contract covers A1(m) Alconbury to Peterborough expires on 31st March 2026 and M40 expires 5th January 2027. 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 which is adjacent geographically. Therefore these roads will be incorporated into this existing Maintenance and Response (M&R) Contract for Area 6&8 of the Strategic Road Network following the award of the Deed of Variation. This together with the need for national alignment of the expiry dates for all of the M&R contracts, ready for their re-procurement, means that the term of the Area 6&8 M&R Contract will be shortened and will have a new end date of 1st July 2029 instead of 30th September 2034. The new estimated total Contract value will be £607,670,000.

Award Detail

CPV Codes

• 45233139 - Highway maintenance work
• 45233130 - Construction work for highways
• 45233140 - Roadworks
• 45233141 - Road-maintenance works
• 45233210 - Surface work for highways
• 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 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. Adding the additional roads 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; 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 change does not considerably alter the scope of the Contract as the works and services provided will remain unchanged and the roads have been included in this Contract because they are adjacent in terms of geographical scope also. Any increase in scope is also mitigated by a shortening in Contract term; This is not a change in contractor. In addition, National Highways also considers that the exemption at Regulation 72(1)(b) would in any event apply. This permits additional services or supplies that have become necessary and were not included in the initial procurement where a change of contractor cannot be made for economic or technical reasons and another supplier/procurement would cause significant inconvenience or substantial duplication of costs for the contracting authority; and where any increase in price does not exceed 50% of the value of the original Contract. 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.