Official UK procurement notice
Highways Infrastructure Contract · UK public procurement notice
Authority: Medway Council (Local council)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionMedway Council manages a significant highway network asset with a gross replacement value of approximately £2 billion, comprising:
•845km of adopted highway
•1,100km (approximately) of adopted footway
•27,007 streetlights
•406 bridges and retaining walls
•The Medway Tunnel — a critical asset with a high consequence of failure profile)
•Approximately 91,000 other highway assets including street furniture
The scale, complexity and critical asset profile of Medway's network, including the Medway Tunnel, makes this a significant and technically demanding network to operate and manage. The current term maintenance contract is delivered by Volker Highways and commenced in August 2017. The contract runs to 31st July 2027, creating a clear procurement programme requirement for the successor contract to be in place in advance of this date, with a likely procurement commencement early Summer 2026.
CPV: Architectural, construction, engineering and inspection services · Cleaning and sanitation services in urban or rural areas, and related services · Repair, maintenance and associated services related to aircraft, railways, roads and marine equipment · Research and development services and related consultancy services · Works for complete or part construction and civil engineering work
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1PlannedRenewal
Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Medway Council buys Works for complete or part construction and civil engineering work (CPV 4520), and who usually turns up
Medway Council’s published record next to the market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Works for complete or part construction and civil engineering work (CPV 4520) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
i
How often small and medium firms win.
Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.
The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.
Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.
i
How often local firms win similar work.
Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.
Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered. The market figure counts awards delivered in South East England.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.
i
How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.
Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.
Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.
Half of these awards have an award date within 62 days of the bid deadline.
i
How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.
Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.
Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.
Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.
Missing bid counts may hide more single-bid awards. This share is a minimum.
How many bids did past lots attract?
i
How many bids past lots received.
Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.
Past bids do not predict this tender.
1 bid63% / 13%
2–313% / 35%
4–625% / 35%
7+0% / 18%
How did awards compare with estimates?
i
Where winning prices landed against estimates.
Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.
Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.
Below estimate50% / 45%
Within ±2%13% / 43%
Above estimate38% / 13%
Assess each lot i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list
Lot #1CPV 4520Published estimate£110m
i
How many bids this lot may attract.
The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.
Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 315 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid12%
2–323%
4–629%
7+36%
i
Where the award price may land.
The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.
No comparable awards for this lot yet.
A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.
Who has supplied this buyer on similar work? i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.
Who could compete for this lot? i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.
About this data
- Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly.
- Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
- Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
- Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Works
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- Procurement threshold
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 30 Mar 2026, 09:58 BST
- Last source update
- 30 Mar 2026, 09:58 BST
- Authority reference
HIC II- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-028894- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-067758Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
30 Mar 2026 → 1 Aug 2027 · 4 dates- Planning notice published208 days ago30 Mar 2026, 09:58 BST
- Market engagement148 days ago29 May 2026, 23:59 BST
Medway Council will host an open virtual Market Engagement Workshop during the week commencing 13th April 2026. The precise date and time will be confirmed upon registration — interested organisations should register their interest using the contact details provided in Section 6 of this notice to receive workshop invitations and joining instructions.
The workshop will be open to all interested suppliers across all tiers and will cover:
•Background to Medway Council and its strategic context for the procurement
•Overview of the current HIC, network profile, and key assets (including the Medway Tunnel)
•Summary of the contract options in-scope and key considerations for the future contract landscape.
•Medway's approach to social value, sustainability, innovation, and digital technology
•Indicative procurement timetable and anticipated process, including the Competitive Flexible Procedure
•Open Q&A session
The workshop is intended to provide all interested organisations with a consistent and transparent briefing on the opportunity before any further engagement sessions take place.
Further Targeted Engagement
A Questionnaire will be provided to all supplier who register and shall complete and return prior to the Engagement Workshop. This questionnaire will provide the Council with important insights that will help to shape the future contract. Suppliers are not obliged to complete the questionnaire and any nil-responses will not be taken into account.
Medway Council may opt to undertake a series of further targeted engagement sessions with interested suppliers on specific contract topics.
- Tender notice expected103 days ago13 Jul 2026, 23:59 BST
- Today24 Oct 2026
- Contract startsin 280 days1 Aug 2027, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published30 Mar 2026, 09:58 BSTUK2
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Pipeline notice- Awards (0)
- No award published
- Contracts (0)
- No contract published
- Bid statistics
- No aggregate bid statistics published
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Official documents & specifications (1)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender