Air Quality Barriers - early market engagement

Highways England is a government company responsible for maintaining the strategic road network in England. As one of our targets we are required to improve the air quality adjacent to key locations on the road network.

Highways England is planning to construct air quality barriers alongside our roads at key points to disperse air pollution. We are seeking an understanding of the available market and products capability to supply barriers to meet the required specification (attached to this notice). We are planning to begin construction of the first barriers prior to March 2020.

We are keen to understand current market capability and interest in delivering this programme before setting our procurement strategy. Options for delivery are still open for consideration and will be influenced by the feedback received, however two of the routes being considered are:

1. Companies to supply the barrier as a component to be erected by Highways England's existing construction contractors;

2. Companies to both supply and erect the barriers as a single service.

Interested parties are invited to contact Highways England at the address given below to express their interest, advise on their capability to provide the barrier (and possibly erect it), raise any questions about the requirement, or make any general comments.

There is no set deadline for receiving comments, but we will be collating feedback received in January in preparation for a second stage of engagement in February. We intend to publish a second notice in mid-February 2019 with details of the second stage.

Feedback received after the end of January will be collated with the feedback from the second stage of engagement.

Please direct any communications to AQBprocurement@highwaysengland.co.uk.