United Utilities has kicked off the procurement process for its major £750 million-plus Manchester and Pennines Resilience scheme with the announcement of an Early Contractor Involvement requirement to support project development.
The water company is proposing to use the direct procurement model to deliver replacement tunnels in AMP7 and 8 for the Haweswater Aqueduct to ensure the resilience of potable water supplies to populations in Manchester and the Pennines.
Manchester and Pennine Resilience, the utility’s largest and most significant water service resilience risk, is associated with a potential failure of the major strategic aqueduct. The aqueduct supplies a third of the region’s drinking water every day but its condition is deteriorating.
At 109km and the largest treated water aqueduct in the UK, Haweswater is the backbone of United Utilities regional water supply system and delivers up to 570 million litres of drinking water to 2 million customers every day. The Aqueduct consists of 52km of 2.6m diameter tunnels and conduits and 57km of multi pipe siphons taking water from the Haweswater reservoir.
Investigations during AMP5 and 6 highlighted the need for new investment - United Utilities has already commenced delivery of additional investment of £35 million to replace the highest risk section.
The scheme forms a major component of United Utilities’ AMP7 Business Plan submission to Ofwat covering the 2020-2025 investment period. The water company will go out to tender for a competitively appointed provider to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the critical infrastructure.
United Utilities is proposing to carry out preliminary designs, land surveys and investigations as well as submitting for planning consent by 2021. The water company is now seeking Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) to develop and assist the project development.
The ECI provider will need to demonstrate suitable competence in undertaking ECI for large UK infrastructure projects, with a particular emphasis towards assisting with Environmental Impact assessments (EIAs). It is anticipated that the ECI contractor will perform the following broad range of activities:
- provide advice and challenge on buildability, sequencing and logistics of construction activities, including time and cost estimating
- provide access to specialist subcontractors for the purposes of scheme development
- develop construction methods to support the EIA process, particularly with temporary works design and environmental mitigation planning
- advise and assist with temporary land use required for construction and with logistics for reaching site locations
- bring technical challenge and innovation to further develop the scheme options
- assist with developing material for public consultation, market and stakeholder engagement
Estimated value of the initial ECI professional services required is between £500,000 to £1 million.
Click here to access the Prior Information Notice – United Utilities is expecting to publish a formal contract notice next month.
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