Pathfinder scheme gets green light

Consultants are flocking to bid for the first of the nationwide "pathfinder" road partnering schemes announced by the Highways Agency last year. The scheme will relieve a notorious bottleneck in Stoke on Trent.

Phil Stanton, project manager for the Agency's Birmingham office, said: "We are getting very strong interest from all the major consultancies because they want to be the first ones involved."

He predicted a similarly high level of interest from contractors when the design and build contract comes up for bid early next year.

The scheme is the City Road/Stoke Road section, comprising the upgrading of a dual carriageway trunk road on a 3km section of the A500, probably by incorporating a flyover. It was one of 37 schemes chosen in last year's review as suitable for partnering.

Under the contract, the Highways Agency is partnering Stoke City Council on an integrated scheme that will mesh bus and pedestrian routes and cycle paths with the new road. The partnership will be extended next year with a design and build contractor being brought in before the public enquiry and compulsory purchase orders stage to provide as much manoeuvrability as possible.

"We are responding to feedback from contractors who complain that by the time they are appointed we have effectively locked in the scheme's design with compulsory purchase orders and environmental statements," said Stanton.

"This time we will appoint before we have done any engineering design or published any road orders."

Next year's tendering round for the design and build contract will probably be by two envelope tendering, with the quality bid being weighted more heavily than price.