Since 2006, CH2M has been providing Halton Borough Council (HBC) with strategic procurement advisory services to support the development and delivery of a new three-tower cable-stayed crossing over the River Mersey – the Mersey Gateway Bridge. The new route forms an essential link between the Merseyside area and North Wales and Cheshire, and will relieve the existing aging Silver Jubilee Bridge of much of the traffic that presently causes congestion in the Halton area.
The project is being procured as a 30-year design-build-finance-operate concession, which was recently awarded to the Merseylink consortium.
Our early work with HBC was in support of the development of the project’s business case and procurement strategy; the development of a market consultation on the scope and extent of the project; and supporting HBC as the project passed through Public Inquiry.
Mid-phase work was focused on the development of the project’s tender documents, model contract documents, and evaluation requirements for both the prequalification and dialogue phases; specifying the technical requirements of the project - design & construction and operation & maintenance requirements; and developing processes and procedures to facilitate the administration of the prequalification and dialogue phases.
As procurement moved to the selection phase, CH2M was responsible for the day to day operation and management of the dialogue phase and administrative processes. Our team also supported HBC’s core technical dialogue team, including lead technical advice on the main bridge and the coordination of all technical inputs to the dialogue phase; coordination and management of the draft final and final tender evaluation phase; and implementation and management of processes and systems to facilitate the successful evaluation and selection of the winning consortium.