Purpose

The report seeks approval to commence procurements for principal contractors and consultants for the separate highways schemes

Decision

For the reasons set out in this report, the Corporate Director has decided to:

1) Approve the commencement of procurement exercises to identify and select appropriate suppliers to deliver services and / or works related to the support services, highways maintenance, repair and/or improvement projects, as detailed in Appendices 1-9 to this report:

a)    Hostile Vehicle Mitigation (Appendix 1)

b)    Commercial and Contract Management Support, professional services contract (Appendix 2)

c)     Bowring Park Road Viaduct design and build (Appendix 3)

d)    Transport for City Regions (TCR) Business Case Support Services (Appendix 4)

e)    Project and Programme Management Support, professional services contract (Appendix 5)

f)      NEC Contract Administration Support, professional services contract (Appendix 6)

g)    Castle Street detailed design contract and construction contract (Appendix 7)

h)    TCR Paddington Phase 1b Preliminary and Detailed Design contract (Appendix 8)

i)       Newton Road/Prescot Road Traffic Signal Junction construction contract (Appendix 9)

Alternative options considered

Do nothing - The Council has a statutory responsibility to maintain the public highway. Choosing not to proceed with the proposed procurements and contract awards would prevent the delivery of the identified projects and could result in the Council failing to meet its legal duties under the Highways Act 1980. This option is therefore not considered viable.

In house provision – The council does not have in house provision in terms of capacity and / or capability to resource and deliver on all the related support services client-side and design phases – whilst TH&P continues to increase in-house resource and expertise there will not be adequate resources to service the services and works required across the period that these services will procured for. The council does not have the in-house provision for the construction phases of the related projects and has no plans to incorporate such provision within the council. The option for in house provision to service and deliver the procurements described in Appendices 1-9 is therefore not feasible with respect to any alternative to procuring these support services and delivery of works.