The Environment Agency (EA) has launched a pre-market engagement exercise with the supply chain on a wide-ranging asset operation, maintenance, response and landscape framework worth an estimated £540 million-plus.

The Agency is seeking expressions of interest from organisations to participate in pre-market engagement activity in relation to the forthcoming procurement of a national framework agreement for asset operation, maintenance, response and landscape requirements.

Interested suppliers are being invited to provide comments and feedback on the EA's proposed approach via a Pre-Market Questionnaire.

Estimated total value of the upcoming framework, which would be tendered in a number of separate Lots, is £540,503,847:

Lot 1a – Civils (maintain and construct) (Contracts <£1m)

• Typical tasks and activities include:
• Earth embankments for flood defence.
• Concrete structures i.e. outfalls, abutments, hard flood banks, culverts, wave return walls, retaining walls.
• Erosion protection and revetment works - Rock armour works, stone and natural products, concrete blockwork, brickwork, dredging and channel excavation and geotextile solutions.
• Culverts repairs.
• Bridge works – removal of existing, construction (access bridges), repair/maintenance works.
• Piling works i.e. sheet piling, bored piles.
• Weirs, locks, flumes, sluices, gauging station infrastructure, fish passes.
• Minor building works such as telemetry kiosks and building maintenance works.
• Creating habitats for wildlife – engineering works to support habitat creation
• New channel creation/channel re-profiling.
• Natural flood management features (leaky barriers, river restoration, flood plain restoration)
• Undertaking emergency civil engineering works required including out of hours if necessary
• Asset condition inspections

Lot 3b – Landscape Monitoring Services

Typical tasks and activities include:

• Site Inspections and Monitoring of the Landscape & Habitats implementation and establishment aftercare by professional consultants
• Monitoring of intervention measures to ensure Environmental Net Gain (ENG) and Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) is successfully established
• Broader administration of the Monitoring Services by LI registered landscape practices to support the technical services provided by the Client’s Landscape Contract Support team
• Landscape Contract Administration 

Lot 1c – Arboricultural / Agricultural Management

Typical tasks and activities include:

• Grass & Weed cutting spraying and removal via mechanical and manual method
• Vegetation management in and around fluvial (rivers) or coastal assets
• Tree works
• Tree surveys and risk assessments
• Planting and seeding
• Inspection for blockages caused by debris that affect or could affect flows in rivers and on assets such as debris screens, weirs, fish & eel passes etc
• Inspection for visual change to the integrity of the structure, e.g. cracking to brickwork in a headwall, bolts missing from a screen, fencing panels bent open, site signage etc
• Remove any debris on structure and remove to regulated disposal or green waste recycling site where appropriate.
• Inspection and maintenance of assets such as flap valves, penstocks, debris screens, fish passes etc.

Lot 3a – Landscape and Habitat implementation & establishment aftercare

Typical tasks and activities include: -

• The landscape construction (implementation) of hard and soft landscape works
• Creation and management for a broad range of habitats compliant with Environmental Net Gain (ENG), Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) and some aspects of carbon offsetting
• Habitat restoration, e.g. peatland restoration
• Establishment Aftercare of soft landscape works:
• Grassland
• Wetlands
• Marginal Habitats
• Intervention measures to ensure Environmental Net Gain (ENG) and Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) is successfully established
• Natural flood management features (e.g. leaky barriers, offline storage, woodland planting for flood risk management, runoff management)

Lot 2 – Asset Operation and Response

Supporting the organisation’s ability to operate assets, typical tasks and activities include: -

• Deployment of temporary defence management plans
• Flood gate operations
• Demountable defence operations
• Mobile pump operations
• Lock operation and lock keeping
• Trash Screen clearance
• MEICA operational activity support
• Pipeline operating and monitoring

Support to the Incident room, preparation for mobilisation, and provision of labour for incident response including out of hours, typical tasks and activities (non-exhaustive):

• Incident Response Standby
• Provision of field team support
• Drought response for assets
• Enacting contingency where assets have failed to perform to set standard
• Enacting exceedance plans where an assets resilience is exceeded.

Lot 1d – Culverts and Confined Spaces Services

Typical tasks and activities include: -

• Culvert inspections (including CCTV)
• Culvert clearance
• Confined spaces access and inspection
• Asset condition inspections

Lot 1b – Mechanical Electrical Instrumentation Control and Automation

Typical tasks and activities include: -

Innovation, design, supply, installation and refurbishment of the following types of assets:

• pump stations refurbishments
• flood and water gates
• sluice gates
• navigation locks and moorings
• penstocks
• weed & debris screens
• weed-screen cleaners
• outfall flaps
• waste pumps
• associated ancillary assets
• borehole equipment i.e. pumps, pipelines, valve chambers
• Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) and relay controlled Motor Control Centres (MCC)
• electrically driven actuators
• shaft driven and submersible axial flow pumps
• Archimedean screws
• Instrumentation & control systems
• Switchgear (LV)
• transformers (LV)
• electrical distribution
• hydraulic systems;

The EA’s estimated date of publication of a formal contract notice is 23 June 2023. In the meantime, the Environment Agency is inviting interested suppliers to get in touch via email to request further information regarding the EA's proposals and the Pre-Market Engagement Questionnaire.

Deadline for return of the Pre-Market Engagement Questionnaire is Monday 6th March 2023 at 10:00hrs – click here to access the Prior Information Notice