Official UK procurement notice
Historical Railways Estate - Examinations Contracts
Authority: National Highways Limited (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionReplacement contracts for the existing Historical Railways Estate Examinations contracts which expire in March 2028.
The Historical Railways Estate (HRE) is a collection of over 3,100 structures and assets which were once part of Britain's rail network, with many structures that are over 100 years old. These structures reside within England, Scotland & Wales.
Once managed by BRB (Residuary) Limited, which was dissolved in 2013, National Highways has been responsible for looking after these structures on behalf of the Department for Transport (DfT) since September 2013.
The Estate is made up of a wide variety of structures and other assets that National Highways is required to maintain and make safe, so the work generally involves repairs, strengthening, restoration and cyclical maintenance/surveys/inspections.
National Highways cannot provide these services in-house and therefore is required to outsource these activities to compliant suppliers.
Further Details relating to HRE is available on the National Highways website: nationalhighways.co.uk/our-work/historical-… ↗
Scope requirements:
Visual & Detailed examinations of structures.
Compliance with Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2010
Emergency Callouts for incidences such as:
- Bridge strikes
- Parapet damage
- Trespass fence repair
- Reports from Local Authority of potentially unsafe structures
- Bridge markings
- Monitoring of defects
CPV: Architectural, construction, engineering and inspection services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How National Highways Limited buys Architectural, construction, engineering (CPV 71), and who usually turns up
National Highways Limited’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: Architectural, construction, engineering (CPV 71) →
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. Small firms win less of this buyer’s work than the market’s: 23% against 56%, n=31.
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.
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 46 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.
Direct awards or one recorded bid are common here. Check the route before spending time on a bid.
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 bid8% / 12%
2–346% / 23%
4–633% / 29%
7+13% / 35%
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 estimate27% / 49%
Within ±2%64% / 34%
Above estimate9% / 17%
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 71Published estimate£25m
This lot lists more than one class in CPV 71. The comparison uses that group.
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 1,116 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid12%
2–323%
4–629%
7+35%
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
- Services
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- Procurement threshold
- Unspecified in notice
- 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
- 19 May 2026, 15:02 BST
- Last source update
- 19 May 2026, 15:02 BST
- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-045810- Latest notice
- Pipeline notice (UK1)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-069c10Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
19 May 2026 → 1 Apr 2028 · 3 dates- Planning notice published159 days ago19 May 2026, 15:02 BST
- Today25 Oct 2026
- Tender notice expectedin 141 days15 Mar 2027, 23:59 GMT
- Contract starts1 Apr 2028, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Pipeline notice published19 May 2026, 15:02 BSTUK1
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
- Pipeline notice Pipeline notice on Find a Tender