SC24029 Highway Term Maintenance Contract 2026

Tender description

Following a competitive procedure with negotiation under Regulation 29 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (the "Procurement"), Kent County Council (the "Council") has appointed a service provider (the "Service Provider") to deliver a highways term maintenance contract (the "Contract"). The Council's highway term maintenance services are currently delivered through the Council's existing contract (the "Current HTMC"), which expires on 30 April 2026. The Council has entered into the Contract as of 19 November 2025 to allow sufficient time for implementation and to ensure service continuity from the expiry of the Current HTMC. The initial term of the Contract is 14 years (168 months) (plus a six (6) month mobilisation period during which Task Orders will be issued under the Contract for the initial term). There will be an option to extend the Contract by up to a maximum aggregate of seven (7) years (84 months). At the Final Tender Stage, the Council identified the most economically advantageous tender using the Price per Quality Point evaluation method. Please also see Section VI for additional information. This Procurement also includes the potential for the local authorities listed in Section II.2.11 below to have access to in order to deliver specific schemes/projects with the Service Provider. Lot 1: The Procurement was undertaken as a competitive procedure with negotiation under Regulation 29 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. Following, three separate rounds of market engagement in January, June, and August 2024 the Procurement launched on 21 October 2024. The Council encouraged small and medium-sized enterprises to participate in the Procurement, either as Candidates, consortium members, supply-chain partners or sub-contractors. The Selection Questionnaire (the "SQ") Stage of the Procurement closed on 25 November 2024. An Invitation to Submit Initial Tender (the "ISIT") was released in December 2024 to the Candidates shortlisted at the SQ Stage (subsequently referred to as "Tenderers"). Only quality was evaluated during the Initial Tender Stage, and following this stage, the top three (3) ranked Tenderers were issued with an Invitation to Submit Detailed Tender (the "ISDT") and invited to the Detailed Tender Stage. At the Detailed Tender Stage, quality was evaluated and a detailed review of the Schedules of Rates was undertaken for the purposes of providing feedback to the Tenderers. The Council did not apply the Price Per Quality Point evaluation method at Detailed Tender Stage. All three (3) Tenderers were issued with an Invitation to Submit Final Tender (the "ISFT"). At the Final Tender Stage of the Procurement the Council evaluated the Tenderers' quality responses and used the Schedules of Rates to calculate the Tenderers' Price per Quality Point. The most economically advantageous Tenderer was determined by the Tenderer receiving the lowest Price per Quality Point. Additional information: The Current HTMC delivers a number of essential and statutory services, including the following: • Winter Service Provision - e.g. gritting/salting the road network during freezing conditions including ploughing during snow events. • Drainage Maintenance and Capital Projects - e.g. cyclical highway drainage cleansing, emergency response during storm events and capital drainage repair schemes. • Structures - e.g. bridge repairs, tunnel maintenance and management and construction of new structures. • Highway patching and small to medium-scale road asset renewal works - e.g. pothole repairs and larger surface defect repairs of the highway. • Pavement asset preservation services - e.g. carriageway and footway life extension treatments such as surface dressing. • Emergency Response - e.g. responding to emergencies across the network due to weather, emergency services support, vehicle collisions, and structural asset failure both in hours and out of hours, 24/7/365. • Highway Improvement Scheme Delivery - e.g. construction of schemes for crash remedial measures, engineering and traffic schemes and S.106 requirements. The below is a summary of the scope for the Contract: • Routine maintenance • Highways schemes • Structures and Tunnels maintenance • High Speed Road maintenance programme • Emergency and Out of Hours • Winter service • Drainage civil schemes • Drainage cleansing • Road and footway patching / pothole repairs • Small/Medium reactive road asset renewal • Signs maintenance • Lining maintenance • Barrier repairs • Asset improvements • Pavement asset preservation services • Professional services ((limited to design for civil engineering works to assist the delivery of projects) • Major Projects (up to £5m) Due to the term of the Contract and the nature of the Services, the Council has reserved the right to include additional supporting and/or related services in the Scope during the term of the Contract and in accordance with its terms.