Thames Water seeks contractors for £500m framework

Thames Water has fired the starting gun on procurement of a £500 million framework relating to its above-ground assets.

The 10-year framework covers water and wastewater assets and relates to all above ground plant, equipment and structures.

A contract notice published on the government’s Find-a-tender website adds: “The expected scope of works spans Thames Water’s water and wastewater non-infrastructure (treatment) assets across the Thames Water region.

“The Non-infrastructure scope includes refurbishment, replacement and provision of new potable water and wastewater treatment assets including service and storage reservoirs.”

The framework is broken into four smaller “runway frameworks” which are based on project size and estimated cost.

The first runway framework, known as RW1, covers medium-sized projects valued from £250,000 to £5 million. RW2 cover projects valued between £5 million and £25 million, while RW3 focusses on major projects exceeding £25 million.

Each runway framework is then split into three lots, covering civils work, mechanical and engineering work and combined non-infrastructure projects.

The types of assets that will be covered by the framework include, but is not limited to, sewage treatment works, sludge treatment works, sewage pumping stations construction work, water treatment work, wastewater pumping station maintenance, construction work for sewage pipes and drainage construction works.

Interested suppliers must request a pre-qualification questionnaire from Thames Water via the company’s own procurement hub.

As well as upgrading its above ground assets, Thames Water has also recently called for the industry to focus on upgrading the UK’s “ageing” underground water infrastructure.

In October 2022, Thames Water chief executive Sarah Bentley penned a joint letter with the heads of Southern and Welsh Water which warned that the slow rate of replacing ageing infrastructure required urgent attention.