Norfolk roads scheme to bypass bid process

Civils contractors have attacked a county council's plan not to tender a £106.5m road scheme because of concerns about a lack of bidder interest as the Olympic building boom kicks in.

Norfolk County Council is set to take the unusual step following a report last week that warned a tendering exercise would be "very costly and could well produce no affordable bids for a project of this magnitude".

The council favours May Gurney, with which it already has a 10-year strategic partnership along with Mott MacDonald, to build the Norwich northern bypass.

May Gurney is already providing early contractor input for the scheme design.

David Pearson, head of the Norwich Area Transport Strategy, said: "We're looking to start work around 2011, which is going to be just around the time that there's a lot of pressure in the industry.

"Because we have May Gurney involved, it seems a bit sad to say 'sorry we don't want you any more', and get another contractor. May Gurney has helped to develop the scheme and the estimate - we've got a big degree of buy-in as to what the outcome cost is going to be."

But one disgruntled contractor told CJ: "This scheme should be market tested. I can't believe that the council doesn't have to go out to tender. It's very unfair on other firms who might want to bid for it."

Another dismissed the council's concerns: "If the Olympic build isn't falling off savagely in 2011 then we've got a problem. To assume there is no contractor interest is being a little bit negative. I would have thought a more straightforward approach would be to publish it and see what the interest is."

Pearson conceded the approach was unusual for a county council, but said: "We have taken a legal view from a leading contract lawyer and his view is that the scope of this work falls within the original OJEU notice that we put out for the partnership contract. In terms of what we're doing, it's no different to what the Highways Agency would do under its ECI method."