Three-stage procurement race for Olympics launched

The whistle has blown on the start of the £280m Olympic Stadium with the launch of a fast procurement process for a design and build team to be in place by January 2007.

The contract will be procured by negotiated procedure in a three-stage process. Bidders' commercial and contractual proposals will first be evaluated by a team made up of Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) representatives, a law firm and a financial advisor.

Their outline proposals will then be reviewed by an evaluation team drawn from the construction industry, plus architects and engineers, as well as the funders, the sporting community and the ODA. Both evaluation teams will then pool their findings and submit a recommendation for a preferred bidder for development of final commercial details prior to award next January. The ODA retains the right to make the final decision.

The winning design and build contractor will then have 18 months to develop its design and produce detailed cost plans followed by 30 to 36 months of construction beginning in September 2008.

Those wishing to prequalify will be assessed in three steps: completeness and compliance check; technical capability (to be scored); financial and economic strength and operating methods.

[Contract Journal, 26 July 2006, p. 3]