Wokingham procures its largest-ever roads programme with a single NEC contract

Wokingham Borough Council in Berkshire, south-east England is using a single NEC contract for its largestever highways procurement. NEC Users’ Group gold member Balfour Beatty is delivering a programme of eight schemes worth £124 million under the NEC-based Scape National Civil Engineering and Infrastructure Framework. Work started in October 2017 and is due to take four years.The council’s major highways programme includes Arborfield Cross Relief Road, South Wokingham Distributor Road (three projects), North Wokingham Distributor Road, Winnersh Relief Road phase 2, Lower Earley Way dualling and Barkham Bridge improvements. Together with three developer-led road schemes, the new and improved highways will enable development of around 10,000 new homes plus associated schools and shops around the historic market town.Balfour Beatty is engaged under an NEC3 Engineering and Construction Contract Option C (target contract with activity schedule). According to the council’s project manager Ian Haller, ‘The deployment of an NEC contract, with its inbuilt mechanisms for collaboration and project de-risking, is certainly helping us to deliver this ambitious scheme in a proactive partnership with Balfour Beatty’.EARLY CONTRACTOR INVOLVEMENTThe contractor’s project director Andy Bradshaw says the council let the programme on a two-stage basis, with an early contractor involvement stage followed by construction. ‘The enabling works and design for each project were carried out during early contractor involvement, resulting in agreement on the prices and programmes for construction in stage two. This has saved the council over two years on the original procurement timeline.’He says NEC’s flexibility enabled both parties to de-risk the eight projects by carrying out timesensitive activities such as utility diversions and ecological activities during enabling works. According to Bradshaw, separate pain/gain mechanisms operate at both the individual project and overall programme level.