Multi-supplier Framework Agreement for proposed utility diversions and/or protection audit and advice services

Transport Scotland is an agency of the Scottish Government and contracts in the name of and on behalf of the Scottish Ministers. Transport Scotland has identified a requirement to appoint suitably experienced Economic Operators (“Consultants”) to provide the following specialist services to support the delivery of trunk road projects across Scotland: It is intended that the Framework Agreement will be in place for a period of 4 years. i) Review and coordination of the overall utility works programme to ensure that the strategy for utility diversions is appropriate and provides the most effective option to support the delivery of the works on time and to budget. ii) Correctness and completeness review of the process undertaken to ensure application of the appropriate Legislation; the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 and New Roads and Street Works Act 1991, the Conditions of Contract, including the Employer’s Requirements and relevant codes of practice including, but not limited to: Measures necessary where apparatus is affected by major works (diversionary works). Any conflicts in these requirements should be identified together with recommendations for further review and/ or action. (iii) Technical review of utility diversion proposals to identify appropriateness and completeness of any proposals, ensure designs can practically be achieved and are compliant with relevant regulations. (iv) Liaise with Statutory Undertakers and the contractor as necessary to ensure compliance with the proposed design and verification of the costs for the diversionary routes/or protection works and provide recommendations. v) Risk Management and Mitigation Review. Appraisal of undertakers designs and programme to identify key risks to programme delivery and the measures taken to identify and mitigate these by Undertakers and relevant parties (i.e. Designer, Contractor etc.). vi) Specialist technical support to respond to utility related requests, queries, dispute resolutions which may involve, but not be limited to: attendance at meetings, preparation of draft correspondence, providing adhoc advice and recommendations. Further, the Consultants may also be required to attend offices, construction sites or other locations within the UK at which the statutory utility owners and contractors are based. The appointed Consultants will be required to have personnel with specialist experience of reviewing utility diversion/protection proposals, with an in depth understanding of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 and New Roads and Street Works Act 1991, as well as Transport Scotland’s and Statutory Undertakers contract requirements. Transport Scotland ultimately wish to ensure a sufficiently robust and rigorous process has been undertaken to ensure prospective tenderers/ contractors/consultants have sufficient information to accurately price and undertake construction works and programme activities within a specified timeline. The contract will be procured through a competitive tender procedure, in accordance with the restricted procedure as stated in the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015. This is a two-stage procedure, comprising a prequalification stage and a tender stage. Section II.2.9 of this Contract Notice describes the criteria for choosing the limited number of candidates. In order to be considered for the prequalification stage, Economic Operators are required to complete and submit an SPD, which can be downloaded via the Public Contracts Scotland portal (www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk). It is anticipated that a total of five operators will be invited to tender stage. Contracts called off from the framework will be of varying length depending on individual project requirements. This contract will not be divided into lots as the service will generally be used on complex projects and will typically be interrelated therefore it would make it unreasonably complex to administer the contract in this manner. Additional information: Economic operators may be excluded from this competition if they are in any of the situations referred to in regulation 58 of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015.