Balfour Beatty scoops £1.5bn Scape framework

Balfour Beatty has been appointed to deliver public sector procurement body Scape’s £1.5bn infrastructure framework, Building can reveal.

The framework, procurement of which started in June last year, is focused on rail, roads, flood defence work and other infrastructure projects.

As revealed by Building in March 2014, Scape is moving into infrastructure and civil engineering work for the first time with the new framework, which is expected to be worth £1-1.5bn over four years.

Over 350 public sector clients procure work through Scape, which is local-authority owned, but until now it has mainly focused on the building sector, with work including schools, care homes, leisure centres and residential schemes.

Launching the framework last year, Mark Robinson, Scape chief executive at Scape, said it would include a wide range of civil engineering and infrastructure projects, including: architectural, construction, engineering and inspection services; urban planning and landscape architectural services; laboratory services; consulting services for water supply; monitoring and control services among others.

At the time Robinson said: “Our clients asked that we considered the procurement of a national civil engineering and infrastructure framework, bringing the expertise from years of procuring construction to the market.

“This is in response to more and more government investment in national and local infrastructure projects.”

He said it would be able to deliver “large-scale, high profile projects” such as the associated infrastructure around HS2.

Robinson added the framework would mean clients no longer had to go through “expensive” individual OJEU tender processes.

A spokesperson for Scape said the firm was “unable to comment at this time as the process is currently in standstill”. Balfour Beatty declined to comment.