Thames Water has terminated the current procurement process for the Teddington Direct River Abstraction (TDRA) Tunnelling Main Works Contract (MWC), announcing that the decision not to sign a contract was taken on 6 July 2026.

The water company says it is voluntarily publishing the Procurement Termination Notice to inform the market that it has decided not to proceed with the award of the Teddington Direct River Abstraction (TDRA) Tunnelling Main Works Contract (MWC).

“Whilst private utilities are not required to publish a Procurement Termination Notice under Section 55 of the Procurement Act 2023, TWUL is publishing this notice voluntarily in the interests of transparency and to provide market certainty”, Thames Water says.

According to the Notice ,following further design development, technical assessments, site investigations and stakeholder engagement, a number of updates have been made to the project design. The utility has concluded that the project should be delivered through a single consolidated Main Works Contract incorporating both the tunnelling works and the tertiary treatment plant (TTP) works. As a result of this work, the water company has reviewed and refined its procurement strategy and will now deliver the TDRA project through a single construction package.

The revised approach materially differs from the procurement structure originally advertised and, accordingly, Thames has decided to discontinue the current procurement and commence a new procurement process.

“The change in the way we are procuring contractors for the project is a result of design development and technical assessments, which means we want to take a different approach to help manage construction risk in a live operational environment like Mogden Sewage Treatment Works,” the water company says.

According to Thames Water, the changes have improved the scheme's safety, viability and operability, whilst also reducing potential impacts on local communities and the surrounding environment.

The single consolidated package approach will allow for:

• A single party to own the phasing and logistics of the construction stage, which is partly located in a constrained area of an operational site.
• Manage interfaces between critical assets that were in close proximity to each other.
• Allows the contractor to own the design with more independence, providing the flexibility to make decisions for the best of the project without having to manage proposed contractor change through a multi-party change and baseline/design acceptance process.
• Reduce requirement for client oversight and approval.
• Greater commercial certainty between all parties: including single programme, float management, cross contract exposure removed, simplified governance, clarity in defects/liabilities.
• Construction Design & Management (CDM) Regulation compliance simplified and aligned to best practice.

Thames Water currently anticipates commencing a new procurement process for a single consolidated TDRA Main Works Contract towards the end of 2026.