Construction work

Tender description

Highways England is the government company charged with operating, maintaining and improving England's strategic road networks. The Lower Thames Crossing (LTC) is a proposed new road connecting Kent, Thurrock and Essex through tunnels underneath the River Thames. The programme will relieve the congested Dartford Crossing and approach roads and improve their performance by providing sufficient north-south road capacity. On the south side of the River Thames, the new road will link the tunnel to the A2 and M2 in Kent. On the north side, it will link to the A13 and junction 29 of the M25 in the London Borough of Havering. There are Three Main Works contracts in this programme. This procurement is for the Tunnels and Approaches contract only, which will interface with the other two Main Works contracts. The project is to design and construct two highway tunnels beneath the River Thames and will be procured under the competitive dialogue procedure. The contract governing the project will be based on the NEC4 Engineering and Construction Contract (ECC) form of contract. The scope includes the portal structures, approach roads, the tunnel controls systems (MEICA) and a 5-year landscape maintenance and aftercare contract. At circa 16 metres in diameter, these tunnels will be some of the largest bored tunnels in the world. Each tunnel will feature a three-lane carriage way. Each tunnel will be circa 4 km in length, with approximately 1 km of approach roads from each portal connecting into the two neighbouring roads contracts.