Essex County Council - Major Highways Schemes – Market Engagement regarding the general Procurement approach and also for the Army & Navy Sustainable Transport Package of works in Chelmsford.

Essex County Council (ECC) - Major Highways Schemes – Market Engagement regarding general Procurement approach & also for the Army & Navy (A&N) Sustainable Transport Package of works in Chelmsford.

ECC generally procures its major highway schemes via existing framework contracts eg Crown Commercial Services, the Eastern Highways Alliance 3 & Pagabo.

To reflect recent tender experience and to help inform its ongoing procurement approach ECC would like to engage with the industry.

In addition, ECC would like to engage with the industry regarding the A&N scheme as outlined below.

Market engagement

This notice advertises the two market engagement opportunities outlined above. Questionnaires will be used to gather replies and feedback as outlined below. Deadline for responses to both questionnaires is noon on Friday 6th September 24 Questionnaire ONE - General Procurement approach:

Seeks feedback on the procurement route, price quality evaluation splits, NEC4 Main Options and X clauses.

Questionnaire TWO – (A&N) Package

This questionnaire seeks feedback on some specific aspects of the scheme.

Background information

The A&N junction in Chelmsford is a key gateway into and out of the city and was being used by up to 70k vehicles a day.

The junction consists of a five-arm roundabout, which until 2019 had a tidal flyover that carried one-way traffic (cars only) to and from the A1060 Parkway/A1114 Essex Yeomanry Way over the roundabout.

The junction is already over capacity during peak times.

The future situation is expected to get worse unless we do something differently and there is a need to provide better options for people to travel, encouraging safer, greener and healthier ways of getting around the city, especially for shorter journeys where we want walking or cycling to be the natural choice.

The A&N Package provides the opportunity to do this and includes measures that will encourage increased walking, cycling and P&R use, alongside an improved junction.

ECC has been conditionally awarded funding from Government. The £81million project, which will also be part funded by ECC and Chelmsford City Council, has progressed after the DfT approved the outline business case and agreed to contribute £68.75million of Major Road Network (MRN) funding. The funding is dependent on planning consent and other processes, as well as a full business case(FBC) which ECC intends to submit by Autumn 2026.

It is estimated that tenders for the schemes will be issued around late winter 25 / early spring 26 however it is possible that tenders could be issued earlier than this depending on the procurement route used.

The scheme includes the following elements:

Package 1 - Redesign of A&N junction (Hamburger Roundabout).

Package 2 - Improved walking and cycling facilities at A&N junction and on approaches.

Package 3 - Improved bus priority on Parkway.

Package 4 -

Option A - Expansion and enhancement of existing Sandon P&R site, including a new passenger terminal and EV Chargers.

Or

Option B - Expansion and enhancement of existing Sandon P&R site including EGV chargers.

Package 5 - Expansion of Chelmer Valley P&R site, including EV Chargers.

Package 6 - Essex Yeomanry Way bus lane extension.

Final composition for each package is subject to review and finalisation as outlined for the options for package 4 and the provision of a new terminal at the Sandon P&R site.

The link to the web page below provides access to more detailed information regarding the whole of the scheme.

https://www.essexhighways.org/highway-schemes-and-developments/highway-schemes/chelmsford-schemes/army-and-navy-taskforce

The questionnaire seeks feedback on the procurement approach, grouping of packages & delivery methodology.

This notice is not a call for competition to procure any works or services and is not published to reduce time limited for the receipt of tenders.