Quality wins road for Mowlem

Mowlem has emerged triumphant from a five-way battle for a £28m junction improvements scheme near the Welsh border.
The contractor has kept four other challengers (Amec, Alfred McAlpine, Nuttall and Costain) at bay to take the delayed A550 Deeside Park deal in Cheshire.
An insider said: "Mowlem won on the back of its quality submission. The Highways Agency (HA) weighted the bids heavily in favour of quality. The quality:price ratio was 70:30 and I understand that Mowlem was some way in front of its rivals in terms of quality."
Another source said: "Mow-lem will be pleased to have beaten Amec and Alfred McAlpine on their
home territory in the North West."
Delays have plagued the Deeside Park scheme since it was advertised 18 months ago.
Contractors were frustrated while control of the procurement of the project passed between the agency's offices in Birmingham and Leeds.
It was then decided that the project would be used to test a form of the Early Contractor Involvement method.
Finally, contractors had to sweat it out for four months while the agency scrutinised the bids.
Work on site is expected to start in 2005 and it will be open to traffic two years later.
The scheme features the grade separation of three existing at-grade junctions on the M56, A5117 and A550, plus 5.1km of on-line dual carriageway improvements.
<F06E> The Highways Agency has readvertised the A483 Pant and Llanymynech bypass scheme, which straddles the Welsh border between Shropshire and Powys.
The project was originally advertised in August 2002 at an estimated cost of £14m. However, the price escalated massively and the HA was forced to temporarily withdraw the scheme.
The early contractor involvement (ECI) project is now costed at £35.7m. The work covers 7km of the A483 between Llynclys and Llanymynech, including a 4.5km bypass to Pant and Llanymynech and 2.5km of on-line dualling.
The winning contractor will be expected to help the scheme through the planning and statutory processes and design the project, followed by the construction phase.