Balfour Beatty's UK construction business has been appointed by the Highways Agency to a new collaborative framework worth in excess of £2.5bn to deliver high value projects.
The company is one of five contractors that will be selected to carry out schemes valued at between £100m to £450m on Lot 3B of the Collaborative Delivery Framework.
The overall framework, which includes Lots for other types of work, will deliver the largest ever upgrade of England's strategic road network, valued at a total of between £4bn and £6bn by 2021. The framework lasts for four years, with an option for a mutually agreed one year extension. The individual projects within the framework will be allocated either through the agreement of target costs or the use of mini-competitions where several tenders are submitted.
The framework is intended to promote collaborative behaviour, innovation and value-orientated solutions, such as standardisation and pre-fabrication, in order to lower costs, deliver better quality faster and to improve health and safety behaviour. Balfour Beatty has pioneered the delivery of these elements on the £88m M4/M5 Smart Motorway scheme and the thirty year £6.2bn M25 Design Build Finance and Operate project which has included the widening of over 100km of motorway and converting it to "˜smart' technology.
Graham Dalton, Highways Agency Chief Executive said: "This framework is the largest we have ever awarded. It will allow the Agency to deliver large scale improvements to England's strategic roads, enabling economic growth across the country.
"It is not just the scale of this framework that is important, but the way it is designed to bring the Agency, designers and contractors together in one large collaborative team. We expect to deliver this major investment programme efficiently, speedily and with real effort to minimise disruption to road users while we build."
Nicholas Pollard, Balfour Beatty Construction Services UK Chief Executive Officer, said: "We have a strong track record of delivering major contracts by working closely with the Highways Agency and we are looking forward to drawing on those experiences as we develop further ways of working which deliver an exceptional service to the Agency and the public. We are delighted to be on board with this leading and innovative programme that forms such a substantial part of the Highways Agency's intense commitment to deliver the biggest ever upgrade of the English strategic road network."
Balfour Beatty is also currently delivering the £184m Manchester Smart Motorway scheme and the £129m M3 Smart Motorway scheme for the Highways Agency.
