Economy and Freight Programme – Stage 1 National

Contracts

• Contract 033089-2023-04133-2022-1 · WSP UK Limited

  Signed

  21 Dec 2022

  Value

  £450,000

  Period

  … – 31 Mar 2024

  Status

  active

  • Change The overarching task for the partnership team, particularly the supplier’s modelling team, is to plan, develop and enhance the EFP modelling methodology. Every aspect of this work is complex and intricately linked together and a key part of the early stages has been to plan how to do this and bring together three complex models which, as far as we are aware, has not been done before. Approaching parts of the modelling work alone is not an option as there are so many dependencies and interactions, hence, why we developed the EFP approach / appointed the EFP partner. Existing Model Inputs- The individual inputs were developed alongside the overall methodology and the scope of these was adapted as the modelling methodology developed and was tested. Much of the additional work required was small and intricate developments and enhancements to the inputs to meet the requirements of the merging modelling methodology and to include some important information that was not considered in the initial scoping stages. The smaller pieces of work were heavily entwined with the other input development and wider modelling methodology. There was no work that emerged from these enhancements that could be packaged up into a specific task or project. In summary, the additional work was the sum of many smaller parts that required small amount of extra time / resources which resulted in a higher cost overall. To compete the remaining input enhancements following the first major test run of the modelling methodology, which has the principal aim of identifying problems and weaknesses, more budget is required. As above, these enhancements will be many small developments and improvements across the various model inputs. In some cases, fixing the data and in other cases fixing how they feed into the model. The approach to this is from the overall modelling perspective and therefore will not be approached on an input-by-input or improvement-by-improvement basis but in a more cohesive way (i.e., all the inputs need to “talk to” and complement each other for the modelling to work). This involves many intricacies and interdependencies and, in many cases, may require the modelling specialist to go right back to the beginning of the input development to fix the issue / error. Therefore, a fundamental understanding of how all the many different parts of the work have been developed so far and how all the many different parts interact together and with the overall model. There is no feasible way of packaging these improvements for another commission. This is not in addition to the core work; it is improving some of the elements of the work to deliver a better-quality core output. Additional Model Inputs- Much of the above also applied to the two additional inputs. The two inputs were identified as very important to the overall work and not including them would be a missed opportunity. As explained above the development, enhancement, and inclusion of inputs into the new modelling methodology is complex and has many interdependencies. It would not be possible to develop inputs separately and then incorporate into the emerging model without having the current suppliers detailed knowledge of the work to date. These inputs are also subject to the same ongoing improvement, enhancement and learning as the original inputs and will be continually amended in conjunction with the other improvements and enhancements as they all need to ‘talk to each other’. Licencing- In addition to the above, there are significant data licencing barriers to appointing another consultant. The current data licence would not allow another supplier to access the modelling data which would be critical to delivering any aspect of the additional work. It has been made clear that this cannot be changed. The intention is to retender for each stage of the work in line with the data licence periods, i.e., each financial year, in this case March 2024 for Stage 2 of the work., Need for modification brought about by circumstances which a diligent contracting authority/entity could not foresee: At the outset of this commission, we did not have a defined tasks specification, as a key role of the supplier was to help us develop our methodology and specification through the expertise within the partnership and in response to the modelling tests. This resulted in the scope of work being developed, amended, added to, and removed throughout the commission period, and the same will be required going forward as we await the first major test results.

Dispute resolution & review bodies

• Royal Courts of JusticeReview body London