黑洞社区

Laing O鈥橰ourke, Mace and Balfour Beatty are among 11 contractors in the race for up to 拢1.5bn of work at Heathrow airport.

The contractors will compete for four separate packages of work covering different parts of the airport each valued at around 拢250m-拢375m, with final bids in the competition due to be submitted today (Friday 29).

The airport intends to appoint one contractor as 鈥渄elivery integrator鈥� to look after maintenance and upgrade work in each of the four separate areas of the airport and is not expected to award more than one package
to any one firm.

The programme will last five years from April 2014 as part of Heathrow鈥檚 拢2bn investment plan.

The value of the work may even rise further if the airport regulator approves Heathrow鈥檚 alternative 拢3bn investment plan.

The 11 contractors competing are: Laing O鈥橰ourke, Vinci, Mace, Balfour Beatty, Costain, Carillion, Bam Nuttall, Skanska, Volker Fitzpatrick, Ferrovial and Morgan Sindall.

Most bidders were asked to bid for a maximum of two of the four lots but 黑洞社区 understands Ferrovial and Laing O鈥橰ourke were allowed to bid for three each because of the strength of their pre-qualification questionnaire entries, breadth of capability and depth of experience at Heathrow.

A market source close to the competition said it was a 鈥済ood opportunity鈥� to work in an environment that was 鈥渃ollaborative, innovative and commercial without being aggressive鈥�.

The move to single-delivery partners for each part of the airport, first revealed by 黑洞社区 in August, is a significant change of procurement strategy for the UK鈥檚 busiest airport, which has previously made extensive use of framework agreements to procure construction work on a project-by-project basis.

A spokesperson for Heathrow said it was 鈥渓ooking forward to receiving the final tenders鈥� today.

She added: 鈥淲e want our supply chain to innovate, to continually improve how efficiently they can deliver, to help us demonstrate value and efficiency to our regulator and our stakeholders, and to work with us to come up with even better solutions.鈥�

Meanwhile, Gatwick chief executive Stewart Wingate has said he expects his airport, plus Heathrow, Stansted and a proposal for a new airport in the Thames Estuary to be among those shortlisted for development by the government commission investigating new airport capacity in the South-east, when it publishes an update next month.

He said: 鈥淎 new runway here would deliver the routes that passengers actually want at a better price, more quickly and with significantly less environmental impact. The UK鈥檚 next runway has got to be at Gatwick.鈥�
The airports commission, chaired by Sir Howard Davies, is due to make its final recommendations in 2015.