Archaeological services

Tender description

Transport Scotland has identified the need to appoint an archaeological contractor to process the archaeological artefacts, obtained from the preliminary works of the A75 Dunragit Bypass, that are currently in storage. The main objective to be delivered by the archaeological contractor will be to perform post archaeological evaluation service, which will present a meaningful body of work that can be used by academics and heritage professionals in perpetuity, whilst providing the public with value for money and open access to the results in an appropriate engaging format. Transport Scotland is an agency of the Scottish Government and contracts in the name of and on behalf of the Scottish Ministers. Transport Scotland has identified the requirement to appoint a suitably experienced economic operator, in order to conduct post excavation services on the archaeological material, gathered from the A75 Dunragit Bypass. It is intended that the contract will be in place for a period of 36 months. Transport Scotland will manage the proposed procurement process for the post excavation services contract (the ‘Contract’) on behalf of the Scottish Ministers. In the event of the contract award, the Contract will be entered into between the Scottish Ministers and the successful tenderer (the ‘Supplier’). The contract terms and conditions will be based on Institution of Civil Engineers Conditions of Contract for Archaeological Investigation. Each selected economic operator shall be invited to submit a Tender on the same contract terms. The Supplier will be procured through a competitive tender procedure, in accordance with the restricted procedure as stated in the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015. Due to the specialist archaeological expertise required for this project, it is to be performed by a single contractor and as such shall not be divided into lots. To be considered for this contract economic operators are required to complete the European Single Procurement Document ESPD in accordance with this Contract Notice. Economic operators shall be evaluated in accordance with the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015, on the basis of information they have provided within the (ESPD). The ESPD can be downloaded via the Public Contracts Scotland portal (www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk). The services required shall comprise, but shall not be limited to, specialist analysis, publication and the facilitation of final archiving of the results from the archaeological investigations, as well as submission of a summary of works undertaken to the Archaeology Scotland publication Discovery and Excavation Scotland. The services required may include, but are not limited to: undertake post-excavation assessment and analysis; preparation of post-excavation assessment reports and, where relevant, publications, including popular publications, articles in relevant journals, scheme-specific monographs etc.; propagation of results through public presentations/lectures, posters, leaflets, press releases etc.; management and co-ordination of any specialist sub-contractors appointed by the successful Contractor; attend meetings with the Employer and/or their representative, relating engineering consultant and curator; preparation of an ordered archive to be submitted to the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, OASIS and the deposition of the detailed report at Transport Scotland and the relevant local authority(ies); and any other work determined and instructed by Transport Scotland relating to the A75 Dunragit Post-Excavation. Further details pertaining to the archaeological material notably through the Data Structure Reports can be accessed via the Public Contracts Scotland portal www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk