HA in move to make ECI more competitive

The Highways Agency (HA) is revamping Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) to give it a "more competitive edge".

Contractors will be expected to provide a clearer picture of the out-turn cost on roads jobs at the early stages of ECI.

New HA chief executive Graham Dalton told CJ: "Having early contractor involvement is good and we certainly have a few doing it, but we are maturing what has become known as ECI to something that enables us to demonstrate value for money.

"I want to see a little bit more commercial edge at stage one of ECI, that sets a firmer expectation of what the out-turn price will be."

Dalton said he would spend the coming months working with major projects director Nirmal Kotecha to tweak the scheme, as the HA tightens its procurement processes.

The comments came in the same week as the Department for Transport announced a £6bn package to fund improvements on England's roads and motorways, and published the Command Paper Roads - Delivering Choice and Reliability.

The paper implied a shift away from new build and widening projects, in favour of hard-shoulder running and technology-dependent 'active traffic management'.

The Civil Engineering Contractors Association criticised the paper and called for greater clarity on which major projects would be constructed up to 2014.

Dalton said: "We have a defined programme that is pretty clear for three years and in pretty good shape for six."

He added that roads was a "tidy little sector at the moment", with £1bn to be spent each year.