The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)has gone out to tender with a construction and engineering delivery framework contract worth an estimated £32 million.

Defra is looking to procure project management, design, build, installation, commissioning and handover services for works on the APHA Science Estate. This includes the estate at Weybridge, as well as the Regional Labs at Starcross, Camarthen, Penrith, Newcastle, Shrewsbury, Bury St Edmonds, Sutton Bonnington and Lasswade and any other similar Authority facilities.

Defra is seeking to put a framework contract in place in order to deliver what is described as a challenging capital investment plan over the next 4 years.The tender is broken down into seven Lots.

• Lot 1 covers the full project life cycle including design, build and installation works inside the containment environment. (£9.6m)
• Lot 2 covers the full project life cycle including design, build and installation works on the overall site, outside containment or in buildings that don't have containment. £6.4m)
• Lot 3 covers the full project life cycle for security and CCTV within internal building and laboratory/animal facilities and external areas.  (£2.65m)
• Lot 4 covers BMS and Critical Alarms - the existing BMS systems on the existing Authority premises are typically Trend systems. (£3.2m)
• Lot 5 covers the full project life cycle for high level containment facility drainage, to include Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) and Vacuum Drainage systems and all associated pipework, components and controls.  (£2.24m)
• Lot 6 focuses on the provision of containment expertise (£6.4m) in order to provide a range of services, including development of APHA and Defra containment requirements from inception/business case stage to a position at which they can be procured under this or other appropriate lots. It also covers the provision of design services where capital work within a containment environment is more complicated and crosses services undertaken by multiple lots. (£6.4m)
• Lot 7 covers  project and site management expertise (Client Agent) (£1.6m)

Defra is looking to appoint up to 21 suppliers to the framework agreement. Time limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate is 12^th April – click here to access the tender documentation