Contractors picked for £1bn of water work

Kier and Murphy are among the members of two contractor consortiums to have been awarded a £1bn five-year contract with Thames Water to maintain and upgrade its water networks.

Thames Water has named the Agility consortium, comprising Murphy and Morrison Utility Services, as preferred bidder for half of the work. It has selected consortium KCD, made up of Kier and Clancy Docwra, for the other £500m slug.

The contract is to deliver necessary improvements, including water maintenance and construction services, logistics management and customer services, throughout the five-year AMP6 regulatory period from April 2015.

Kier said the contract, when signed, would include an option to be extended into the AMP7 and AMP8 regulatory periods if it delivered successfully, meaning it stands to gain a 15-year pipeline of work.

Thames Water said 130 assessors evaluated the bids over three months, with the two consortiums being deemed to be demonstrating the “cultures and behaviours” aligning with Thames Water’s own values.

Haydn Mursell, chief executive of Kier, said: “With this contract, Kier further demonstrates its strengthened integrated construction and services capabilities following the acquisition of May Gurney last year.”

Thames Water managing director of wholesale water, Bob Collington OBE, said: “We strongly believe these two alliances will create aligned goals and objectives throughout the supply chain, standing us in the best possible position to deliver our customer and stakeholder promises.”

Collington said the consortiums would jointly agree processes with Thames Water for work allocation based on “best customer outcome and cost”. He added: “I am determined to ensure that investment and delivery are customer-focused at all times. By bringing greater innovation to process and techniques, I hope we can build on the past to improve performance further in the future.”