Balfours wins £80m Scots PFI

The North of Scotland Environmental Services consortium is preferred bidder for an £80 million PFI contract for North of Scotland Water Authority in the Aberdeen area.

The consortium, which comprises BICC (Balfour Beatty), Yorkshire Water and Earth Tech Engineering, saw off a bid by its only remaining rival, the Miller Northumbrian Consortium, which is made up of the Miller Group and the Northumbrian Water Group.

Two other consortia were eliminated earlier in the bidding process in January this year. The two consortia were: Buchan Environmental - Compagnie Generale des Eaux with Brown and Root; and the Catchment consortium of Morrison Construction, Bechtel and United Utilities.

North of Scotland Environmental will now negotiate with North of Scotland Water with a view to reaching a full concession award for the design, build, finance and operate scheme.

The project will provide wastewater treatment for Aberdeen, Stonehaven, Peterhead and Fraserburgh. Most of the scheme will be in operation by 2001, with the exception of the Stonehaven element, which is expected to be on stream no later than 2005.

The work at Aberdeen will involve upgrading the existing preliminary treatment works to cope with secondary treatment and the construction of a new sludge treatment plant. The existing Peterhead plant will also be upgraded to cope with secondary treatment works, while Fraserburgh will also get a secondary treatment plant. Other works include disposal facilities, pumping stations, sewers and outfalls.