Directive 2004/18/EC
Section I: Contracting authority
I.1)Name, addresses and contact point(s)Official name: Highways England
Postal address: Woodlands, Manton Lane
Town: Bedford
Postal code: MK41 7LW
Country: United Kingdom
For the attention of: Cat Bensley
E-mail: cat.bensley@highwaysengland.co.uk
Telephone: +44 1234796301
Internet address(es):
General address of the contracting authority: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/highways-england
Further information can be obtained from:
The above mentioned contact point(s)
Specifications and additional documents (including documents for competitive dialogue and a dynamic purchasing system) can be obtained from:
The above mentioned contact point(s)
Tenders or requests to participate must be sent to:
The above mentioned contact point(s)
I.2)Type of the contracting authorityNational or federal agency/office
I.3)Main activityGeneral public services
I.4)Contract award on behalf of other contracting authoritiesThe contracting authority is purchasing on behalf of other contracting authorities: no
Section II: Object of the contract
II.1)Description
II.1.1)Title attributed to the contract by the contracting authority:
Lower Thames Crossing — Technical Partner.
II.1.2)Type of contract and location of works, place of delivery or of performanceServices
Service category No 27: Other services
NUTS code UKI21 Outer London - East and North East
II.1.3)Information about a public contract, a framework agreement or a dynamic purchasing system (DPS)The notice involves a public contract
II.1.4)Information on framework agreement
II.1.5)Short description of the contract or purchase(s)
The Lower Thames Crossing (LTC) is a new road crossing of the Thames Estuary, east of London, between Essex and Kent with new infrastructure and operational arrangements to increase capacity and improve resilience on the Strategic Road Network.
The existing Dartford — Thurrock crossing provides a vital link for many business travellers, haulage companies and holidaymakers travelling to and from Europe via the English Channel, as well as linking communities both north and south of the Thames.
However, over recent years traffic volumes have increased and the crossing now regularly exceeds its original design capacity of 135 000 vehicles a day. Congestion and delay are major problems, and conditions are expected to get worse in future.
Therefore the Lower Thames Crossing scheme is exploring two options to relieve the stress on this link.
The LTC is a technically challenging project and although the crossing type and location will not be decided until early 2016, we are looking for a Technical Partner to provide leading expertise in the key disciplines outlined below in order to ensure successful delivery of this high profile project.
This project gives a potential supplier the chance to be involved in a team who are working to deliver a 2 500 000 000 — 5 000 000 000 GBP scheme which will be 1 of Highway England's biggest projects.
The Technical Partner will need to demonstrate extensive experience in the development and delivery of large complex transport infrastructure schemes in the current UK planning environment. This includes being able to provide strong leadership, excellent technical capability and proven expertise in the design of and construction of large bridges, immersed tube and bored tunnels.
This is a long term appointment, likely to be in excess of 10 years, and required to support an accelerated delivery schedule. The successful Technical Partner will be required to work in collaboration with multiple partners to;
— Provide and demonstrate expertise in all relevant river crossing types in order to accelerate the delivery schedule and able to provide all required capabilities without compromise.
— Provide design leadership and technical expertise in the preparation of preliminary designs (including surveys and sampling), Environmental Impact assessments (EIA) and other technical documentation to support an application for the relevant permissions / consents.
— Manage the pre application engagement with the Planning Inspectorate (PIN) and develop / manage the application (likely to be a Development Consent Order (DCO)) including technical stakeholder engagement and pre application consultation process.
— Progress the procurement of its works contractor or multiple contractors in parallel with the completion and submission of a DCO application. Provide a seamless transition in to delivery immediately following award of the DCO and the associated consents.
— Provide assurance, supervision and coordination of the activities of contractors.
— Ensure liaison with Network Operations and assure the technical elements of the Delivery Phase ( Design and Construction).
— Develop illustrative / reference design proposals to enable procurement of one or more main contractors and essential advanced or enabling works regardless of the procurement or funding route.
Please note that on the 1.4.2015 the Highways Agency became a government owned company, Highways England. It was appointed as a strategic highways company by way of an Order made by the Secretary of State pursuant to section 1 of the Infrastructure Act 2015.
The Technical Partner Tender is to be let under the Terms of the NEC3 Professional Services Contract (Option G) as adopted/modified by the Highways England.
The Contract will be advertised via OJEU (Restricted Procedure) and suppliers will be shortlisted following pre-qualification.
Services under a Task Orders may be paid for as:
— Lump Sum — on satisfactory completion of an activity;
— Target Cost; or
— Time charge.
Highways England will select the appropriate payment approach for the specific Task Order.
For Pre-qualification it is the intention to pre-qualify suppliers by means of a number of suitability and selection criteria. Suitability criteria will be mandatory and assessed on a pass/fail basis. Only those companies who comply with all suitability criteria will be considered further. Suitable companies will be selected upon the basis of their response to the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire including their technical ability and past performance.
Those companies with the highest overall score will be shortlisted for invitation to tender for this service.
Following Pre-Qualification suppliers will be shortlisted and a minimum of five bidders will be selected to submit their Tenders. These will be assessed on a quality/price evaluation basis and the most economically advantageous tender will be accepted.
The tender documents have been provided within the Data Room on e-Bravo in line with the changes to the Public Contract Regulations. Please note that these documents may be subject to some changes before invite to tender, although there will not be any material change.
II.1.6)Common procurement vocabulary (CPV)71311000 Civil engineering consultancy services, 71320000 Engineering design services, 71500000 Construction-related services, 71310000 Consultative engineering and construction services
II.1.7)Information about Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)The contract is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA): yes
II.1.8)LotsThis contract is divided into lots: no
II.1.9)Information about variantsVariants will be accepted: no
II.2)Quantity or scope of the contract
II.2.1)Total quantity or scope:Estimated value excluding VAT:
Range: between 100 000 000 and 200 000 000 GBP
II.2.2)Information about options
II.2.3)Information about renewals
II.3)Duration of the contract or time limit for completionDuration in months: 120 (from the award of the contract)
Section III: Legal, economic, financial and technical information
III.1)Conditions relating to the contract
III.1.1)Deposits and guarantees required:
III.1.2)Main financing conditions and payment arrangements and/or reference to the relevant provisions governing them:
Details provided in contract documents.
III.1.3)Legal form to be taken by the group of economic operators to whom the contract is to be awarded:
In the case of an Unincorporated Joint Venture (Joint and Several Liability) the Contractor must also confirm the names of all the contracting entities with the Employer should they be selected to tender.
III.1.4)Other particular conditionsThe performance of the contract is subject to particular conditions: no
III.2)Conditions for participation
III.2.1)Personal situation of economic operators, including requirements relating to enrolment on professional or trade registersInformation and formalities necessary for evaluating if the requirements are met: The following is in line with Article 57 of the Public Procurement Regulations and is outlined in the The PQQ document A.3 in e-bravo.
1. The supplier must declare if it or any of its directors any other person who has powers of representation, decision or control of the supplier has been convicted of any of the following offences:
(a) conspiracy within the meaning of section 1 or 1A of the Criminal Law Act 1977 or article 9 or 9A of the Criminal Attempts and Conspiracy (Northern Ireland) Order 1983 where that conspiracy relates to participation in a criminal organisation as defined in Article 2 of Council Framework Decision 2008/841/JHA;
((b) corruption within the meaning of section 1(2) of the Public Bodies Corrupt Practices Act 1889(20) or section 1 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906(21), where the offence relates to active corruption;
(c) the offence of bribery, where the offence relates to active corruption;
(ca) bribery within the meaning of section 1 or 6 of the Bribery Act 2010(22);
(d) fraud, where the offence relates to fraud affecting the European Communities' financial interests as defined by Article 1 of the Convention on the protection of the financial interests of the European Communities(23), within the meaning of:
(i) the offence of cheating the Revenue;
(ii) the offence of conspiracy to defraud;
(iii) fraud or theft within the meaning of the Theft Act 1968, the Theft Act (Northern Ireland) 1969, the Theft Act 1978 or the Theft (Northern Ireland) Order 1978;
(iv) fraudulent trading within the meaning of section 458 of the Companies Act 1985, article 451 of the Companies (Northern Ireland) Order 1986 or section 993 of the Companies Act 2006;
(v) fraudulent evasion within the meaning of section 170 of the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979(31) or section 72 of the Value Added Tax Act 1994;
(vi) an offence in connection with taxation in the European Union within the meaning of section 71 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993;
(vii) destroying, defacing or concealing of documents or procuring the execution of a valuable security within the meaning of section 20 of the Theft Act 1968(34) or section 19 of the Theft Act (Northern Ireland) 1969;
(viii) fraud within the meaning of section 2, 3 or 4 of the Fraud Act 2006; or
(ix) making, adapting, supplying or offering to supply articles for use in frauds within the meaning of section 7 of the Fraud Act 2006;
(e) money laundering within the meaning of section 340(11) of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002;
(ea) an offence in connection with the proceeds of criminal conduct within the meaning of section 93A, 93B or 93C of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 or article 45, 46 or 47 of the Proceeds of Crime (Northern Ireland) Order 1996;
(eb) an offence in connection with the proceeds of drug trafficking within the meaning of section 49, 50 or 51 of the Drug Trafficking Act 1994; or
(f) any other offence within the meaning of Article 45(1) of the Public Sector Directive as defined by the national law of any relevant State Highways England shall treat as ineligible and may not select a supplier has been convicted of any of the above offences Highways England may apply to the relevant competent authority to obtain further information regarding the supplier and in particular details of convictions of the offences listed above if it considers it needs such information to decide on any exclusion referred to above.
In any case where supplier or its directors or any other person who has powers of representation, decision or control has been convicted of an offence described in paragraph (1), Highways England may disregard the prohibition described there if it is satisfied that there are overriding requirements in the general interest which justify doing so in relation to that economic operator in order to maintain or enable sufficient competition.
2. The Supplier must declare if any of the following (a) to (j) it or any of its directors any other person who has powers of representation, decision or control of the supplier is applicable. Highways England shall consider a supplier as ineligible or decide not to select supplier in accordance with the Procurement Regulations on 1 or more of the following grounds, namely that the economic operator or any of its directors any other person who has powers of representation, decision or control of the economic operator (supplier):
(a) being an individual is a person in respect of whom a debt relief order has been made or is bankrupt or has had a receiving order or administration order or bankruptcy restrictions order or a debt relief restrictions order made against him or has made any composition or arrangement with or for the benefit of his creditors or has made any conveyance or assignment for the benefit of his creditors or appears unable to pay, or to have no reasonable prospect of being able to pay, a debt within the meaning of section 268 of the Insolvency Act 1986, or article 242 of the Insolvency (Northern Ireland) Order 1989, or in Scotland has granted a trust deed for creditors or become otherwise apparently insolvent, or is the subject of a petition presented for sequestration of his estate, or is the subject of any similar procedure under the law of any other state;
(b) being a partnership constituted under Scots law has granted a trust deed or become otherwise apparently insolvent, or is the subject of a petition presented for sequestration of its estate;
(c) being a company or any other entity within the meaning of section 255 of the Enterprise Act 2002 has passed a resolution or is the subject of an order by the court for the company's winding up otherwise than for the purpose of bona fide reconstruction or amalgamation, or has had a receiver, manager or administrator on behalf of a creditor appointed in respect of the company's business or any part thereof or is the subject of the above procedures or is the subject of similar procedures under the law of any other state;
(d) has been convicted of a criminal offence relating to the conduct of his business or profession;
(e) has committed an act of grave misconduct in the course of his business or profession;
(f) has not fulfilled obligations relating to the payment of social security contributions under the law of any part of the United Kingdom or of the relevant State in which the economic operator is established;
(g) has not fulfilled obligations relating to the payment of taxes under the law of any part of the United Kingdom or of the relevant State in which the supplier is established;
(h) is guilty of serious misrepresentation in providing any information referred to within regulation or regulation 24, 25, 26 or 27 (of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 as amended), or has not provided such information in response to a request by the contracting authority;
(i) in relation to procedures for the award of a public services contract, is not licensed in the relevant State in which he is established or is not a member of an organisation in that relevant State when the law of that relevant State prohibits the provision of the services to be provided under the contract by a person who is not so licensed or who is not such a member; or
(j)subject to Regulation 23 paragraphs (7), (8) and (9) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, as amended, is not registered on the professional or trade register of the relevant State specified in Schedule 6 in which he is established under conditions laid down by that State.
III.2.2)Economic and financial abilityInformation and formalities necessary for evaluating if the requirements are met: The last two years audited accounts, or other accepted means of demonstrating financial capability if audited accounts are unavailable will be requested with the response to the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire. Please refer to the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire for full details (see VI.3 Additional Information).
Minimum level(s) of standards possibly required: Stated in the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (see VI.3 Additional Information).
III.2.3)Technical capacityInformation and formalities necessary for evaluating if the requirements are met:
Please refer to the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire for full details (see VI.3 — Additional Information).
Minimum level(s) of standards possibly required:
Please refer to the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire for full details (see VI.3 — Additional Information).
III.2.4)Information about reserved contracts
III.3)Conditions specific to services contracts
III.3.1)Information about a particular professionExecution of the service is reserved to a particular profession: no
III.3.2)Staff responsible for the execution of the service
Section IV: Procedure
IV.1)Type of procedure
IV.1.1)Type of procedureRestricted
IV.1.2)Limitations on the number of operators who will be invited to tender or to participateEnvisaged number of operators: 5
Objective criteria for choosing the limited number of candidates: Please refer to the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire for details (see VI.3 — Additional Information).
IV.1.3)Reduction of the number of operators during the negotiation or dialogue
IV.2)Award criteria
IV.2.1)Award criteriaThe most economically advantageous tender in terms of the criteria stated in the specifications, in the invitation to tender or to negotiate or in the descriptive document
IV.2.2)Information about electronic auctionAn electronic auction will be used: no
IV.3)Administrative information
IV.3.1)File reference number attributed by the contracting authority:
IV.3.2)Previous publication(s) concerning the same contract IV.3.3)Conditions for obtaining specifications and additional documents or descriptive document
IV.3.4)Time limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate9.7.2015 - 12:00
IV.3.5)Date of dispatch of invitations to tender or to participate to selected candidates
IV.3.6)Language(s) in which tenders or requests to participate may be drawn upEnglish.
IV.3.7)Minimum time frame during which the tenderer must maintain the tender
IV.3.8)Conditions for opening of tenders
Section VI: Complementary information
VI.1)Information about recurrenceThis is a recurrent procurement: no
VI.2)Information about European Union fundsThe contract is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds: no
VI.3)Additional information
The Contracting Authority intends to use an eTendering system in this procurement exercise and reserves the right to use a reverse auction.
Suppliers Instructions How to Express Interest in this Tender:
1. Register your company on the eSourcing portal (this is only required once) — Browse to the eSourcing Portal: https://highways.bravosolution.co.uk and click the link to register — Accept the terms and conditions and click 'continue' — Enter your correct business and user details — Note the username you chose and click 'Save' when complete — You will shortly receive an e-mail with your unique password (please keep this secure).
2. Express an Interest in the tender — Login to the portal with the username/password — Click the 'PQQs/ITTs Open to All Suppliers' link. (These are Pre-Qualification Questionnaires or Invitations to Tender open to any registered supplier) — Click on the relevant PQQ/ITT to access the content — Click the 'Express Interest' button at the top of the page — This will move the PQQ/ITT into your 'My PQQs/My ITTs' page. (This is a secure area reserved for your projects only) — You can now access any attachments by clicking 'Buyer Attachments' in the 'PQQ/ITT Details' box.
3. Responding to the tender — Click 'My Response' under 'PQQ/ITT Details', you can choose to 'Create Response' or to 'Decline to Respond' (please give a reason if declining) — You can now use the ‘Messages' function to communicate with the buyer and seek any clarification — Note the deadline for completion, then follow the onscreen instructions to complete the PQQ/ITT — There may be a mixture of online and offline actions for you to perform (there is detailed online help available) You must then submit your reply using the 'Submit Response' button at the top of the page. If you require any further assistance please consult the online help, or contact the eTendering help desk.
Expressions of interest must be submitted from the Supplier's registered office address. Each member of a Joint Venture (JV) must submit a letter from their own registered office confirming all company names in the proposed JV.
Suppliers should note that Highways England may choose to publish the names of Suppliers on its tender list for this contract after invitation to tender letters have been dispatched.
The tenderer with the most economically advantageous tender will be required to sign Highways England Fair Payment Charter as a condition of acceptance of their tender.
As a supplier / organisation looking to bid for public sector contracts you should be aware tender documentation for contracts over 10 000 GBP will be published on a single website and made available to the public. You should also be aware that if your bid is successful, the resulting contract will be published. In some circumstances, limited redactions will be made to tender documentation and/or contracts before they are published in order to comply with existing law, to protect commercial interests, and for the protection of national security.
Government Departments are committed to ensuring public sector procurement is used, where possible, to promote skills training and open up apprenticeship opportunities on public sector projects and programmes. To support this commitment Highways England Board has agreed a target to have one apprenticeship created for every 20 000 000 GBP spent through a contract. The Highways England Board has identified that Providers delivering the Lower Thames Crossing are expected to contribute in delivering this target.
Highways England reserves the right not to accept the highest scoring, or any, tender. Bidders should note that tenders are being provided at the supplier's own cost and risk. Should Highways England cancel the competition for any reason, bidders' costs will not be reimbursed.
The duration of this contract will be 10 years plus an optional 2 years at Highways Englands discretion.
Suppliers who are interested in tendering for this contract will have the opportunity to attend a Supplier Briefing Event to be held in Central London at the end of June. This will provide an opportunity for suppliers to gain an insight into the required services and raise specific questions in relation to the Lower Thames Crossing Scheme.
Suppliers who wish to attend this Event will be required to register to the following email address: ltc@highwaysengland.co.uk
Due to pressure on premises Highways Enlgand reserves the right to limit the number of separate suppliers represented at the event and to limit the number of places available to each Company/Joint Venture represented, to as few as 2. Details of any limitations will be made clear in due course. The closing date for registration to attend this event is Wednesday 17.6.2015.
VI.4)Procedures for appeal
VI.4.1)Body responsible for appeal procedures
VI.4.2)Lodging of appeals
VI.4.3)Service from which information about the lodging of appeals may be obtained
VI.5)Date of dispatch of this notice:5.6.2015