Northumbrian Water has launched a preliminary market engagement exercise for its £240 million Bran Sands Long Sea Outfall project.

The objective of the project is to reduce nitrogen loadings in the Teesmouth and Cleveland Coast Special Protection Area (SPA) by 1st April 2030. This will be achieved by removing the Bran Sands discharge from the River Tees and discharging directly to the North Sea to improve dispersion and dilution.

A Long Sea Outfall for Bran Sands was supported and approved by Ofwat in the regulator’s final determination of the water company’s PR24 business plan. The Levelling Up and Regeneration Act (2023) requires a Technically Achievable Limit of Total Nitrogen of 10mg/l at 'designated STWs' that serve a population equivalent of more than 2,000 people by 1 April 2030 and are within the Nutrient Neutrality area.

To deliver this, the driver was included in the Water Industry National Environment Programme (WINEP) under the Habitats Directive for Nutrient Neutrality.

The project indicatively consists of three works packages:

• Onshore Headworks/Pumping Station
• Onshore pipeline - 3km 2m diameter
• Offshore pipeline - 4.5km 2m diameter

Types of work under the packages, which may be tendered and awarded individually or in combination, could include:

• Design of pumped marine outfall pipeline systems
• Early Contractor Involvement and/or Works Contractor(s)
• Onshore and offshore environmental, geotechnical and geophysical surveys
• Onshore and offshore tunnelling (tbc)
• Flow collection chamber/Pumping station and/or Headworks pumping station – civil, mechanical, electrical and ICA
• Dredged outfall installation - long length large diameter PE with concrete ballast
• Marine structures - outfall diffuser and diffuser protection

Northumbrian Water says it welcomes interest from all suitable contractors and suppliers - it is mandatory for any interested suppliers to register on the new Central Digital Platform

At this stage, the water company expects to receive individual entity responses. Once the procurement strategy has been defined, Northumbrian Water is aware that delivery approaches may involve responses from JVs, consortium etc.

The aims of the market engagement activity are as follows:

• Understand current market conditions and appetite for schemes of this nature
• Understanding supplier's capability and capacity to deliver schemes of this nature
• Understand and develop the procurement strategy for the project, which could include exclusive use of the Northumbrian Water’s established framework partners or a mix of framework partners and open market competition
• Reviewing how work could be packaged and advertised to the market (i.e splitting into lots, advertising as one scheme etc) to deliver best value
• Seeking feedback from the market to understand how Northumbrian Water can be an attractive client, ensuring the procurement process is proportionate to the size and complexity of the project

The Market Engagement Process consists of:

• Initial Conditions of Participation to exclude any suppliers who are on Debarment List or are not registered on Central Digital Platform
• Completion of contractor questionnaire via Microsoft Forms requesting information on contractor capabilities, previous experience of a similar nature, how contractors can add value to the market engagement process

Interested suppliers are required to provide the following information when they submit an expression of interest

• Full company name
• Key contact (name, email address to receive the questionnaire link, mobile number)
• Type of company: D&C organisation/ Specialist service provider (please detail: eg Tunnelling (offshore/onshore)/Specialist Surveys/Marine Structures)/ Other (provide detail)

Northumbrian Water will review questionnaire responses and select the most suitable suppliers to attend the engagement session. Preference will be given to suppliers with a recent demonstrable track record of delivering long length large-diameter outfall pipeline projects (or part of) of this nature

The water company will hold an in-person workshop / round table session with all invited participants - Northumbrian Water expects to invite c15. The date will be confirmed to shortlisted suppliers once known

Once Northumbrian Water has completed the market engagement, it will then develop a procurement strategy to deliver the project. If this results in an open market competition, any material shared during the engagement process will be included within the tender documents.

Expressions of interest to complete the questionnaire must be sent to via e-mail before the deadline of 12pm on Wednesday 20 August 2025 to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Once the expression of interest window has closed, a link to the questionnaire will be sent to the email address provided by interested suppliers on 21 August 2025. Deadline for completing and submitting the questionnaire is 5pm on Thursday 4 September 2025.

Suppliers selected for further engagement may be invited to an in-person workshop on Tuesday 16th September - further details will be provided following receipt of questionnaires.

Northumbrian Water’s current estimated publication date of a formal tender notice is 2 March 2026. Current estimated start and end contract dates are 31 October 2026 to 31 March 2030