Thames Water has reissued a contract notice for its upcoming private sewers work and lateral drain maintenance worth over £500 million pounds.
The work covers a wide range of activities, including customer contact and management, planning and scheduling of remote teams, blockage clearance, associated minor works and associated major civil works.
Associated ancillary activities cover jetting, tankering, over-pumping, clean-ups, sewer reconstitution, re-lining, CCTV survey, data collection and management, mapping activities (GIS)), and a high level of end-customer engagement.
As a result of proposed regulations under the Water Act (2003) it is anticipated that Thames Water will adopt private sewers and lateral drains on the 1st October this year.
This will result in an increase of approximately 60 % (40 000 km) of sewer length to that currently supported by Thames Water. Projected figures suggest this may equate to up to 200 000 additional activities over and above the current sewer blockage clearance and maintenance provision.
The notice says Thames Water intends to engage with one service provider to ensure a high quality customer experience is achieved in order to support the increase in workload.
In order to achieve the most effective service provision Thames Water said it will consider a number of delivery models based on both skill-set and geographically based work allocation. To ensure full clarity and support the decision making 5 lots have been created.
The OJEU notice is for applications to Lot 1 only for Managed Service or Managing Agent. Managed Service – Self delivery would cover delivery through sub contract, or a combination of both, of the end to end service encompassed within the other lots. Managing Agent would provide management on behalf of Thames Water of a number of potential contracts and frameworks between Thames Water and its service providers.
The other lots are:
Lot 2 – Customer management:
Lot 3 – Blockage Clearance:
Lot 4 – Ancillary services (individual sub lots, or a combination of):
Lot 5 – Sub-tier contractors
Thames Water said that any agreement would be for an initial duration of 3.5 years with the option to extend up to a maximum duration of 8.5 years. Organisations applying for lot 1 are expected to demonstrate a minimum £50 million turnover.
Time limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate is 12:00 noon on 22.2.2011. The Tender document is available to download to registered WaterBriefing readers.


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