The UK’s Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) has been awarded a position on Highways England’s new Specialist Professional and Technical Services (SPaTS) framework, which includes consultancies that will offer professional services to further the agency’s activities.
Under the framework, TRL will support Highways England, the Department for Transport (DfT) and other public sector bodies through the provision of road and transport related specialist technical services, including research and innovation. SPaTS replaces previous Transport-related Technical and Engineering Advice and Research (T-TEAR), Special Project Service Framework (SPSF) and Project Support Framework (PSF) procurement frameworks to better support the £15bn (US$19.6bn) of capital investment in Highways England’s Roads Improvement Strategy (RIS) that was announced in December 2014.
The framework, which will stay in place for the next four years, provides Highways England with a route to procure technical, commercial and specialist services. TRL is a prime contractor on both Lot 1 (engineering advice, research and innovation) and Lot 6 (post implementation evaluation of schemes, projects, policies and programmes), with support from a specialist supply chain.A fully independent, private business for the last 20 years, TRL provides world-class research, consultancy and technology for all aspects of surface transportation, assisting organizations create future transport and mobility systems that drive societal and economic improvements across the world.
Commenting on the appointment, Rob Wallis, TRL’s CEO, said, “We have a long history of providing advice to Highways England, working closely and strategically to deliver tangible benefits to both the agency and its customers.
SPaTS builds on this relationship and is an example of TRL’s continued influence in future transport solutions in the UK and internationally.
We have brought together a comprehensive supply chain and look forward to helping Highways England continue to drive further transformation in the road network.”
As well as TRL, Highways England has revealed the other consultants included in the new SPaTS framework. The companies selected will offer a mix of technical engineering advice, commercial services, dispute resolution advice, insurance advice, procurement advice and post-opening project evaluation.
SPaTS is an enabled framework and is available to the wider public sector.
Alongside TRL in Lot 1 (technical consultancy, engineering advice) are: Arup/Aecom; Atkins/C2HM; Pell Frischmann; and WSP.
Companies in Lot 2 (commercial services performance and cost engineering) are: Arcadis (EC Harris); Corderoy; Faithful + Gould; Mott MacDonald; Turner & Townsend; and WSP.
Lot 3 (commercial and dispute resolution): Arup.
Lot 4 (insurance advice): Willis.
Lot 5 (procurement advice): Arup; Mott MacDonald; Rowsell Wright; and Turner & Townsend.
Lot 6 (post implementation evaluation of projects and policies): Atkins and TRL.
