ODA to pay stadium bidders to innovate

Olympic Delivery Authority's payment initiative is intended to promote both innovative design and buildability.

The Olympic Delivery Authority is to pay the consortia it shortlists for the stadium to work up their own plans, and will select the successful bidder by Christmas.

Within the next two weeks the current international bidding list will be slashed to just two, although no bidder names are being given.

The ODA has decided on this route in order to achieve its goal of both innovative design and buildability.

"We want them to bring in their supply chains particularly on constructional design and temporary design," said David Higgins, the ODA chief.

The new delivery partner Laing O’Rourke/Mace/CH2M Hill International is currently deciding whether to advise the ODA to use retentions as part of the contractual arrangements for the stadium.

They will be using a variant NEC contract. The ODA team is right on target and currently one year into its 2:4:1 programme of two years to design, four to build and one to commission prior to the 2012 games.

Higgins conceded that his contract and procure strategy is risky given that the public and private infrastructure spend will be £10bn over five years, which is twice the value of Heathrow Terminal 5, being done in half the time and on land they do not own. "But we have a lot of powers, including Draconian powers on transportation, roads and planning," he said.

"Normal business rules cannot apply because if you are doing this scale of development, twice the scale in cash terms of the Channel Tunnel at peak, you cannot do it conventionally. You cannot rely on law or contracts. We have not got time to rely on processes because the deadline is not flexible," he warned.

"You have to rely on faith, hope, trust and goodwill," he said, adding that the relationships they build up will be open, transparent and accountable.

In a reference to the Multiplex/Wembley debacle, Higgins warned that he did not want partners to be talking about ticking boxes and "saying we (the client) are holding them up".

A key consideration for the stadium will be to integrate the games themselves and the longer term facilities once the games are finished.

"We are determined not to leave a legacy of either white elephant or gentrification for the people of the area," said Higgins, speaking at the RICS’ COBRA research conference last week.

By mid-October, the team will have put together its comprehensive transport package showing the roads and other infrastructure links, including the extension of the DLR that will be put in place over the next six years.

[Contract Journal, 13 September 2006, p 1]