UK East West Rail Launches £450 Million Early Works Framework Tender

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On 29 October, the UK's East West Railway Company (EWR Co) published a tender notice on the Find a Tender platform for its "Programme Support Works Framework" (reference CT4692), with a contract value estimated at up to £450 million (excluding VAT), or £540 million including VAT, covering pre-construction early works, ground investigation and environmental works for the Oxford to Cambridge railway main line. The deadline for submitting expressions of interest is 12:00 on 13 November 2026, with the contract award decision expected on 4 January 2028.

The framework is divided into six lots. Lot 0, the principal contractor and integrator, will be awarded to a single supplier and is valued at £80 million, responsible for site safety supervision, cross-lot coordination and maintenance of the master programme. Lot 5, early works, is the largest single lot at £133 million, covering construction compounds, temporary access roads, haul roads, drainage, fencing, foundations for temporary structures, as well as underground utility detection, trial pits and trench excavation. The remaining four specialist lots are: Lot 1 historic environment at £7.5 million, Lot 2 ground investigation and monitoring at £40 million, Lot 3 environmental and ecological survey at £7 million, and Lot 4 environmental and ecological mitigation at £20 million, all awarded to multiple suppliers in order to bring in SMEs and tier-two and tier-three suppliers.

The contract term is a four-year core period, plus three options of two years, one year and one year (4+2+1+1). The framework is scheduled to commence in February 2028 and may run for a maximum of up to January 2036. The £450 million figure is an indicative estimate, and EWR Co is under no obligation to spend the full amount over the eight-year reference period; Network Rail may also use the framework. A single supplier may win no more than one lot, and there are contractual interaction restrictions with other parallel East West Rail procurements, in order to maintain the independence of delivery and supervision functions and avoid conflicts of interest.

Main line construction remains conditional on approval of a Development Consent Order (DCO), which EWR Co plans to submit in 2027.