According to construction information specialist Glenigan one consortium including Costain and another Skanska and Balfour Beatty are set to be named as new alliance partners at the end of May.
Thames was expected to select four consortia from a shortlist of five to join it in shaping and planning work programmes in 2015-2020.
Final Alliance shortlists
Design and Build delivery partner
- Costain, Veolia, Atkins
- Skanska, MWH, Balfour Beatty
Other bidders
- Galliford, Morrison, Mott MacDonald (GMM JV)
- Laing O’Rourke, Imtech, Barhale (Tamesis Plus)
- Murphy, Black and Veatch, Aecom (MBVA)
Two other bid groups: Amec, May Gurney; and Kier, URS, VolkerFitzpatrick dropped out of the running several months ago.
As an olive branch Thames Water has said that contractors that do not make the Top Tier Alliance will be able to bid for work packages at a later stage, under separate tender competitions.
Thames Water is trying alliancing for the first time after seeing programme outcomes from Anglian Water’s @oneAlliance.
It hopes to drive big savings by engaging the winning consortia into a two-year, early contractor involvement phase before carving up work when AMP6 gets underway in 2015-2020.
One consultant told the Enquirer: “The prize of up to 10 years of work pipeline will put pressure on the firms to keep work keenly priced in the run-up to AMP6.”