£1.7bn Stonehenge bid race continues despite High Court block
Highways England is ploughing head with its tender contests for the £1.7bn Stonehenge tunnel and A303 Amesbury to Berwick Down upgrade despite the scheme being declared unlawful by the High Court.
The agency said it would continue to appoint building contracts to ensure the procurement process ran to schedule – although it has paused plans for preparatory work by contractor Osborne and archaeological field work while the Department for Transport “considers its options”.
Three bids have now been submitted for the tunnel and main works contract and the preferred bidder is expected to be announced in early 2022.
Shortlisted Stonehenge consortia
- BMJV – Bouygues Travaux Publics and J Murphy & Sons
- HDJV – Hochtief Infrastructure and Dragados
- MORE JV – FCC Construcción Salini Impregilo and BeMo Tunnelling UK
Highways England is also pressing ahead with plans to procure a Delivery Assurance Partner to support in managing the delivery of the main works contract. It is anticipated that the £60m contract will be awarded late this year.
David Bullock, Highways England’s project manager for the A303 Stonehenge scheme, said: “We have to wait while the Department for Transport considers its options, and in the meantime we are continuing with the process to appoint a contractor for the main works phase of the scheme.
“We have now paused our plans to carry out early, preparatory work, but the procurement process is very much live, to ensure we maintain programme timescales as best as possible.
“We still believe our project is the best solution to the ongoing issues along the A303 past Stonehenge.”
Archaeological fieldwork and preliminary works had been scheduled to start later this summer, while a temporary, three-month closure of the A360 to enable utilities work – earmarked to start in September – has also been postponed.
Bullock added: “In terms of our initial work, we plan to update local communities via a virtual public information event when we know a little more, and in the interim we are continuing to communicate our plans with all stakeholders and interested parties.”
Elsewhere along the A303, Highways England said Galliford Try would also be starting work in September to dual a further £170m single lane section between Sparkford and Ilchester.
The scheme, further west on the A303 in Somerset, will provide a high-quality three-mile dual carriageway link, including new and replacement slip roads, junctions and road bridges to replace existing junctions and direct access roads.
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Shortage of subbies hampers construction growth
Construction buyers have reported a near record decline in subcontractor availability.
Latest results for the bellwether IHS Markit/CIPS UK Construction PMI Total Activity Index show a lack of subcontractors and materials shortages hampered growth last month.
The index registered 58.7 in July – down sharply from June’s 24-year high of 66.3 but still well above the crucial 50.0 no-change threshold.
The latest decline in subcontractor availability was the second-fastest since the survey began in 1997, exceeded only by that seen during the lockdown in April 2020.
Tim Moore, Economics Director at IHS Markit, said: “Long lead times for materials and shrinking subcontractor availability were cited as factors holding back work on site.
“Around two-thirds of the survey panel experienced longer wait times for supplier deliveries in July, while just 2% reported an improvement since the previous month.
“July data marked the first real slowdown in the construction recovery since the lockdown at the start of this year. It was unsurprising that UK construction companies were unable to maintain output growth at the 24-year high seen in June, especially with widespread supply shortages and constrained capacity to take on additional orders.”
Duncan Brock, Group Director at the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply, added: “The pervasive weaknesses in supply chains along with a lack of staff and contractor availability were laid bare as construction lost some of its get-up-and-go.
“The rampant rise in prices for raw materials and transportation continued to be the construction’s heavy load along with historically long delivery times.
“Though there was a slight improvement in supplier performance from June’s record low, it was partly as a result of frustrated supply chain managers reining back on purchases that were unlikely to arrive when needed.
“Businesses were also unable to expand on staff capacity, where even the most prolific hiring periods since 2014 was insufficient for builders’ ability to complete work in hand.
“Faced with transport disruptions, shortages of essentials and Brexit delays, the initial spurt of activity this year is fast hitting the rocks.
“Building optimism was dampened to the lowest since January as it is difficult to foresee when all these challenges are likely to subside.”
Fraser Johns, finance director at construction firm Beard, said: “We know these are challenges that are not set to go away any time soon, so in order to move forward it’s going to be crucial to take a proactive approach.
“Working in collaboration with suppliers and subcontractors, including ensuring prompt payment, will go some way to mitigate the risk of projects falling through.
“But customers need to be aware of the issues facing the industry is facing as well. Being transparent at the point of submitting tenders about the need to order certain materials early to ensure delivery on time, using two stage procurement processes, will help to overcome some of these issues.”
Vinci Europe chief to head rebranded Engie UK business
Equans, the new name for Engie’s services-led operations, has named former Vinci UK MD Jean-Philippe Loiseau as the new chief of its UK & Ireland business.
Loiseau will join in September and succeeds current CEO Nicola Lovett, who leaves the £2bn turnover UK business to pursue new challenges outside of the group.
He has previously led a number of Vinci’s Group’s European subsidiaries, including Vinci’s FM and construction businesses in the UK.
He also managed Antea, an independent environmental services company for ten years.
Jérôme Stubler, Equans CEO, said: “I would like to thank Nicola for the part she has played in the establishment and launch of our new business and for the great dedication and leadership she has shown throughout her successful career with Engie.
“The UK is an important market for Equans and I am pleased to welcome Jean-Philippe, who is a strong, experienced leader with the qualities to implement the next phase of growth for our UK & Ireland business, while continuing to deliver high performance outcomes for our customers”.
Last month, Engie announced the creation of Equans, bringing together its global service activities under a new brand, creating a market leader in the sector with 74,000 employees and revenues of 12 bn euros.
In the UK & Ireland, all of Engie’s activity in technical services, facilities management, construction and regeneration and and renewables, now come under the Equans brand.
Equans UK & Ireland employs 13,500 people – a significant part of the overall new global operation.
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Goodbye, Spreadsheets: Win More Work with Centralized Bid Management
As the world continues to open back up, we’re starting to see more signs of recovery in the construction industry. Research from Dodge Data & Analytics and Autodesk shows that bidding activity has been increasing since the start of the year. In fact, bidding activity in BuildingConnected was up 36% in January 2021, compared to a three-month pre-pandemic average.
This is great news overall, and as a contractor, you can capitalize on these opportunities by optimizing your systems to keep up with the increasing number of bids coming your way.
The best way to do that is to eliminate cumbersome tools like spreadsheets.
Spreadsheets are useful for tracking basic information but they’re not ideal for higher level processes and tasks such as bid management.
Since the bidding process requires you to manually enter and track numerous bits of info, putting everything in a spreadsheet can get messy and confusing. This could lead to missed bids and loss of potential work.
What’s more, collaboration can be a pain with spreadsheets. You can’t share files in a centralized manner, so people typically end up emailing each other different versions of the file, resulting in issues with version history and conflict between updates.
Another problem with using spreadsheets? It’s much more difficult to analyze data. While they can display raw information in neat rows and columns, extracting useful insights from spreadsheets is largely a manual process.
All this to say that spreadsheets aren’t great for managing bids and they’re certainly not going to help you win more work.
If you’re still using spreadsheets, it’s high time to replace them with a centralized bidding management system. The right solution can streamline the bidding process and make collaboration easier, ultimately helping you win more bids.
Our recent guide discusses how a centralized bid management system can benefit subcontractors. Download it for free.
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Read on to explore some of the key insights you’ll find in the guide.
What is a Centralized Bid Management System?
A centralized bid management system refers to a single platform on which you can centrally manage the entire bidding process. It’s an excellent solution for contractors, because it enables you to track and handle all your bids from one place, which can help you increase your win rates and revenues.
Case in point: Bowman Flooring Contractor, a Georgia-based specialty contractor increased its win rate by 25% and revenue by $9 million when the company adopted a new bid management system.
The team at Bowman used to rely on Excel and emails to manage bids, and they decided to implement bid management technology to improve their processes.
In doing so, Bowman was able to be more organized and keep all the necessary bidding information in one place. The new software made it easy for teams to track and assign bids and they were able to prioritize jobs that were more likely to win. What’s more, they could pull up past project estimates, which led to better estimates on current projects.
“Our new software totally changed the way we do business,” said Mike Adams, Senior Project Manager at Bowman Flooring Contractor.
Benefits of a Centralized Bid Management System
We’ve discussed the general benefits of a centralized bid management system, now let’s take a look at the specific advantages of having one.
Streamlined Bid Management
Having a centralized system that’s accessible to multiple team members reduces the need for double entry and other manual tasks. Unlike using spreadsheets, which involves manually entering data, a centralized system for bid management lets everyone work on the same information at any given time.
As a result, subcontractors can minimize errors, confusion, and tedious work like reviewing and re-entering data.
Easy Bid Tracking
Juggling multiple bids can be a nightmare when you’re using spreadsheets and other manual methods. These cumbersome tools can’t centrally store data, so it’s easy for information to slip through the cracks.
When you have a centralized bid management system, you can easily get a bird’s eye view of the entire bid process. You’ll also have a single source of truth when it comes to the status of all your bids and invites, so you’ll never miss an opportunity again.
Better Collaboration
A centralized bid management system allows teams to work together without a hitch. Since information is stored and accessed in the cloud, team members can collaborate in real-time and everyone can always get their hands on the most updated information. This eliminates confusion and miscommunication, which leads to a smoother bid management process.
Simplified Bid Solicitation
A centralized bid management system also improves the process of bidding on and bidding out. When soliciting bids from other subcontractors, the information they submit feeds directly into the bid, so there’s no need to re-enter the same info.
Having the ability to manage both bids in and bids out from a centralized platform paves the way for more competitive final bids. You can track proposals in one place and make data-driven decisions before submitting your bid.
Download Our Free Ebook
To win more bids in today’s increasingly competitive market, you need all the help you can get. A centralized bid management system enables you to stay organized, save time, and understand your bids better, so you can win more projects and continue to grow.
Download our free ebook to learn how a centralized bid management system can help you improve your business.
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