Surrey seeks market help with rethink of £615m highways services

Surrey County Council is consulting the market in what appears to be a major rethink of the delivery of its highways maintenance, construction and design services before the procurement of some £615m of work.

The council has published a prior information notice (PIN) stating that it is exploring options for delivery of highways maintenance, construction and design services ‘and as such will be engaging directly with the market to further scope potential solutions’.

The total value of the works covered by the notice is £615m, which includes all the council’s highways activities for a notional 10-year period but not necessarily within a single contract.

The PIN adds that ‘SCC wishes to consult organisations with relevant delivery experience to secure the views of market participants. This will assist SCC to identify preferred option(s) and in planning the future procurement procedures’.

It states that the current timeline would see procurement start in autumn 2019 and that the council may host a market discovery workshop in late July.

According to the council, the current contract arrangements ‘would be described as a mixed economy in the form of a number of different contracts’.

The PIN states that the council ‘wishes to consult with organisations with relevant experience of the delivery of similar services’ and that the purpose of the consultation is to seek the early views of market participants on potential service delivery models available to it.

It suggests that there are likely to be several distinct procurements, which may include any or all of an extensive list of activities mentioned in the notice.

It gives the estimated date of publication of one or more contract notices as 25 September 2019.