HA considers new workload quotas

The Highways Agency (HA) is planning to package between 60% to 80% of its future major road projects into regional bundles to be handled by teams of contractors and designers.

The proposed changes are designed to meet the rush of major projects arising from the multi-modal studies, the first phase of which are expected to be announced imminently.

As a result of this the HA is reassessing its supply base by running the rule over which contractors it wants to work with and how they should be rewarded, according to Gary Wright, the HA's supply chain manager in charge of the pre-qualification process.

The HA estimates it needs a supply chain of 20 contractors and 20 consultants to handle its future major projects programme. To ensure a fair division of the workload the HA could start limiting the amount of work awarded to each contractor based on its construction turnover with the Agency, or on a percentage of the HA's turnover alone.

Large, medium and small contractors have been promised a fair share of the work by packaging major capital improvements schemes into large, medium and small brackets across the HA's road network.

Preferred teams should be ready to receive their package areas after April.

Also under consideration is the option of pushing through some contracts valued at less than £5m into smaller-scale packages.

The duration of the agreements will be five to seven years. The HA hopes to iron out the peaks and troughs experienced by project teams as they move from the finish of one scheme to the start of another.

Packaging will also see an even split of skills among areas so that one package area strong on tunnel work will not be expected to do carriageway works.

Risk sharing will also be managed better at the early stages, while the Agency promises good rewards for improvements on project budgets.

However, it is considering capping contractors' bonuses to a maximum of 2% to 3% of the contract value if firms come in under budget.

Wright said: "The first stage is incorporating our procurement strategy into the package proposals and then we can set up the pre-qual format."

To help with the tender stage evaluation, the HA has come up with a Capability Assessment Tool (CAT) to get contractors to self-assess across 10 or 20 indicators on areas such as partnering and leadership on a 0 to 4 scale. Honesty will be checked by the HA.

A league table of top suppliers based on the CAT figures is being considered, which could see top contractors and consultants teaming up for work.