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UK motorway procurement slammed25 Nov 2010Source: Procurement Leaders The UK Highways Agency’s PFI procurement contract to widen the M25 London orbital motorway has come under fire from the National Audit Office (NAO). The project, which was undertaken to reduce congestion, “could have been materially better value for money”, according to the NAO. The watchdog went on to warn that the slowness with which the work was taken forward resulted in higher financing costs in the credit crisis. Moreover, the agency was slow to investigate a potentially cheaper alternative to widening. At each stage of the widening procurement, the agency assessed the value for money of the project based on the information it had available. However, had the agency investigated hard shoulder running earlier and been more flexible, it could have seriously considered the savings potential that hard shoulder running can offer together with any effect on benefits,” said an NAO statement. "The agency should have adopted a more agile approach to procurement, recognising the potential for making savings using an alternative method of relieving congestion, hard shoulder running. The agency should have kept its contracting approach open to allow the use of this method." Read more here |
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