Sellafield goes to market for construction partners

21 April 2017 09:07 Comments (0)

Sellafield, the organisation responsible for decommissioning the former Windscale and Calder Hall nuclear sites in Cumbria is to hold a bidders day on 28 April as it seeks to appoint four construction partners to deliver key projects over the next 20 years.

Steve Livingstone, projects director, said: “This is a hugely important step – it is a game change for the way we deal with our supply chain.

“Instead of procuring supply chains for each major project, we’ll establish a new project delivery environment based upon long term relationships with selected partners, developing closer working practices on the way.

“The new model will ensure our projects, while maintaining our excellent safety performance, will be delivered faster, meaning Sellafield is made safer more quickly.”

Following the event, at which fuller details of the new programme and project partners model will be explained, tenders will be invited across four lots. The first, named as integration partner, comprises major projects and site-wide project delivery improvements. This will be a lead role, supporting integration between the lot partners.

Lot 2 is for a design and engineering partner “with considerable design delivery expertise in a regulated industry” to provide design and engineering services on the major projects and to lead in the improvement and management of the design and engineering capability within Sellafield.

A key element will be coordinating input from the other lot partners, in particular the Lot 3 and Lot 4 Partners, to optimise design, constructability and associated costings.

Lot 3 is for a civils construction partner, again with experience in regulated industry to contribute to major projects solutions. Lot 4 is for a process construction partner.

The Lot 3 and 4 partners will work together to develop an integrated supply chain as part of the procurement plan for the PPP partnership to deliver the portfolio of major projects, and will also be required to support Sellafield on non-major projects.