Metro Alliance — Construction.

Descriptions

Centro is the owner of Midland Metro and has been successful in working with the Department for Transport and the Greater Birmingham and Solihull and Black Country Local Enterprise Partnerships to secure funding of a number of extensions to the system. Centro is in the process of delivering the BCCE and Fleet Refurbishment Programme and is working towards completion of those projects by the end of 2015. This will provide a 40 % increase in capacity on Line 1 through the new fleet of trams and will bring Metro onto the streets of Birmingham city centre to the main entrance to the newly refurbished New Street Station. The 1st of a fleet of new trams went into service on Midland Metro Line 1 on 5.9.2014, the extension of Wednesbury depot is now complete and works to construct the tramway in Bull Street, Corporation Street and Stephenson Street are well in hand and are planned to open to service in 2015. Following the government's decision in 2013 to devolve major project funding for transport to Local Transport Bodies (LTBs) work has been ongoing to develop future routes for the Midland Metro system and funding is in place to deliver the following extensions: — Centenary Square Extension (Pinfold Street to Centenary Square) — Wolverhampton City Centre Extension (Pipers Row to Railway Station) — Birmingham Eastside Extension (to link with HS2 station at Curzon Street, extending further to Adderley Street) — Edgbaston Extension (Centenary Square to Edgbaston). Further additions linking Solihull via East Birmingham and between Wednesbury and Brierley Hill (in phases) to the light rail system are also submitted within the HS2 Growth Strategy. In respect of previous projects, contractors have been procured through OJEU compliant processes on a project by project basis. The past funding position t has led to larger routes being split up into smaller, more easily funded sections and this has had an impact on the number and quality of contractors interested in bidding for such smaller packages of work. This position has led Centro to reconsider its strategy relating to the preparation and tender of such projects. Learning from the successful experience of clients such as Highways Agency, Network Rail and water companies such as Anglian Water, Centro proposes to let an alliance contract with a single contractor and designer for a period of 10 years for the Midland Metro extensions work. In this Midland Metro Delivery Alliance the designer, contractor and Centro will work as an integrated team to develop and deliver the programme under a contractual framework where their commercial interest are aligned with actual project outcomes. Under traditional forms of contract, responsibilities and risk are allocated to different parties with commercial and/or legal consequences for the individual parties where they fail to manage their risks or properly discharge their contractual/legal obligations. Under the alliance the participants will: — assume collective responsibility for delivering the project; — take collective ownership of all risks (and opportunities) associated with the delivery of the project; and — share in the pain of gain depending on how actual project outcomes compare with the pre-agreed targets that they have jointly committed to achieve. This provides: — Active management of the project in all respects, as opposed to ‘reactive’ management when problems arise — Reduced costs and project durations and improved quality of deliverables through early contractor involvement — Continuous and maximised input from the participants — Collaborative relationship with mutual trust and shared ownership of risks/problems through the life of a project — Value for money developed over a series of projects — Continuous improvement over time — Single cohesive team without any of us and them attitudes — Clear understanding of the purpose/mission of the alliance. The intention is to procure the Designer and Contractor as part of separate procurement exercises, with the Designer appointed 1st in order to take part in the behavioural assessments which will be undertaken as part of the contractor procurement process. This notice is related to the construction (contractor) aspects only.