Highway Works Alliance (HWA)

The HWA is an innovative, long-term highways maintenance and improvement contract that has been formed between Leicestershire County Council and one main supplier for highway works under £500,000.

Working with one supplier reduces the resource costs necessary during the procurement process.

In January 2008, Tarmac National Contracting division was awarded the contract for the HWA, valued at up to £8 million per annum. The contract runs until March 2013, with the option of three one year extensions, based on financial performance and quality of service provision.

The HWA contract is based on the ECC Target Cost form of contract, designed to encourage innovation and efficiency savings by sharing resources and best practice, and developing multi-disciplined, integrated teams.

Analysis by the Midlands Highway Alliance “Term Maintenance Working Group” cites the HWA as being close to the “best practice model” for highway maintenance work and the best overall contract example amongst MHA members..

The Highway Works Alliance is tasked with achieving over £1/2million worth of efficiency savings by 2010 through integrated working, best practice sharing and re-engineering of delivery processes.   

By March 2009, over £300k of efficiencies had been verified as being delivered in Leicestershire.

In the HWA, reciprocal working agreements mean that Leicestershire Highways Operations (LHO) can also take on work when Tarmac has a peak in workload, creating new contracts and work opportunities for LHO staff.   There is also opportunity for shared procurement to realise further savings

Tarmac Limited is the UK’s largest quarrying company. Its National Contracting division is also the largest road contracting and maintenance company in the UK.

The company, which was set up more that 100 years ago, has a strong heritage, unrivalled technical expertise and is focused on the development of innovative and sustainable solutions.

Tarmac’s proven experience of working with clients on similar strategic road contracts, as well as their commitment to safety, quality and delivery, were key factors in securing the contract with Leicestershire.

For more information visit www.tarmac.co.uk

 

The £1million signalised junction improvement scheme carried out at the Foxhunter roundabout, is part of an on-going strategic programme of works to improve traffic flow around junction 21 of the M1.

Under the Midlands Works Framework 3 (MWF3) contract, Leicestershire County Council (LCC) appointed Tarmac National Contracting Ltd. to carry out the work.

Tarmac then sub-contracted Leicestershire Highways Operations, through the reciprocal arrangement of the HWA, to jointly deliver the scheme.

This arrangement benefited both parties. It created work opportunities for LHO and this local knowledge provided Tarmac with a delivery partner who knew the challenges that would be faced working at this location.

The pre-existing HWA arrangement also enabled a smoother set-up with regard to costing, staffing and operational delivery. Tarmac was able to make use of LCC’s existing “Highway Management System” (an in-house software package) for customer interface / enquiries, and also benefit from co-location opportunities.

For details on the Foxhunter scheme, click on the following link: www.leics.gov.uk/foxhunter-1

    

LCC gained numerous benefits of working with Tarmac on the Foxhunter roundabout scheme, including:

The mutual benefits gained through the Foxhunter roundabout scheme have led to the exploration of other possible partnership working opportunities, including the procurement of surface dressing materials, grass cutting programme of works, the development of IT systems and the overall expansion of the highway works programme.

The Foxhunter roundabout scheme was registered as a jointly-delivered scheme under the ‘Considerate Constructor Scheme’ which received favourable audits.