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Surprise over A74 approach
00:00 11 Jul 1996
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The biggest obstacle to tendering for the œ190 million A74(M)
upgrade - the first Scottish design, build, finance and operate
road scheme - is that part of the project is in England and there
is no start date, Paul Evans, chief executive of Road Management
Group said this week.
Evans told CJ: "Linking the English section (accounting for 10% of the 100km total distance) with the Scottish section, and looking for committed finance for both, even though the start date for the English section is undefined, is a big problem - it makes financing difficult."
Evans has been surprised at the Scottish Office's approach to its first dbfo scheme. "I thought they would have copied the Highways Agency's contract," he said. "But they didn't: they created another contract. It's not bad but there are easier ways of getting there.
"The Scottish Office has been proscriptive on where they want to be. When bidding new schemes in England we propose our own traffic banding, traffic volumes and toll structure. In Scotland, they proscribe them in order to compare bidders on a level-playing-field basis."
Formed by Amec, Alfred McAlpine, Brown & Root and Dragados, RMG plans to be the UK's first natural PFI concession company. In England, RMG won two of the Tranche 1 projects but then missed out totally on Tranche 1a. "We may have taken our eye off the ball," conceded Evans.
RMG has submitted pre-qualification bids for three Highways Agency Tranche 2 schemes, admitting a preference for the South Midlands Network.
One of Evans's tasks has been to change the way of thinking of those joining the RMG group. "It's taken me ages to shift our people from the short-term to long-term view," he said. "I remember at Amec we were a minor shareholder in the Manchester Metro and at the start we were more concerned with getting out than staying in. Now the strategy is to stay in."
Evans puts the cost of bidding a œ150 million dbfo scheme at œ3 million (CJ 13 June). "Currently, half the costs are being mirrored," he said. "There is room for reduction as familiarity grows."
Evans told CJ: "Linking the English section (accounting for 10% of the 100km total distance) with the Scottish section, and looking for committed finance for both, even though the start date for the English section is undefined, is a big problem - it makes financing difficult."
Evans has been surprised at the Scottish Office's approach to its first dbfo scheme. "I thought they would have copied the Highways Agency's contract," he said. "But they didn't: they created another contract. It's not bad but there are easier ways of getting there.
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"The Scottish Office has been proscriptive on where they want to be. When bidding new schemes in England we propose our own traffic banding, traffic volumes and toll structure. In Scotland, they proscribe them in order to compare bidders on a level-playing-field basis."
Formed by Amec, Alfred McAlpine, Brown & Root and Dragados, RMG plans to be the UK's first natural PFI concession company. In England, RMG won two of the Tranche 1 projects but then missed out totally on Tranche 1a. "We may have taken our eye off the ball," conceded Evans.
RMG has submitted pre-qualification bids for three Highways Agency Tranche 2 schemes, admitting a preference for the South Midlands Network.
One of Evans's tasks has been to change the way of thinking of those joining the RMG group. "It's taken me ages to shift our people from the short-term to long-term view," he said. "I remember at Amec we were a minor shareholder in the Manchester Metro and at the start we were more concerned with getting out than staying in. Now the strategy is to stay in."
Evans puts the cost of bidding a œ150 million dbfo scheme at œ3 million (CJ 13 June). "Currently, half the costs are being mirrored," he said. "There is room for reduction as familiarity grows."
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