Olympics follows Terminal 5 lead and picks flexible NEC contract

The Olympics Delivery Authority is to focus on partnering for London 2012 work after opting to use NEC3 contracts.

Ray Payne, ODA head of procurement, announced the decision at an NEC users' group seminar on Monday in the ODA's first address since becoming an independent body last week.

Speaking exclusively to QS News after the announcement, Payne said the ODA chose NEC3 because of its focus on integrated teamwork.

"It is inconceivable that we wouldn't use a partnering arrangement for a project as long and as complicated as this," he said.

Payne added: "One of the nice things about NEC3 is that it comes in so many variants and it's inconceivable that there isn't a variant for all our circumstances."

Payne revealed that ODA also considered JCT forms, GC/Works series one to five, and PPC contracts.

Robert Gerrard, secretary of the NEC users' group, said he was delighted with the ODA decision: "It's a monumental day for us, the culmination of 10 to 15 years of hard graft making this contract the best it can be."

Heathrow Terminal 5, the Channel Tunnel Rail Link and Procure 21 have all previously used NEC contracts for high profile projects.

It’s a monumental day for us, the culmination of
years of hard graft

Robert Gerrard, secretary, NEC users’ group

Payne said the next step for the ODA in the run-up to London 2012 work is appointing its board, which is expected to happen in the next few weeks. There were over 700 expressions of interest for the posts.

The body is soon expected to award a large remediation contract to tackle pollution of land and water in the Lea Valley, work that has to be done before main construction can start. This work includes installing 22km of storm water drains and 12km of new water mains.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg of the huge engineering project that will have to be delivered in a comparatively short space of time," said Payne.

Remediation is expected to be complete around September 2007, when construction will start and continue until mid-2011.

Commissioning is planned to start in 2011 so test events can be run before the Olympics kicks off in 2012.

ODA is also looking to appoint its main delivery partner, although Payne said there is not yet a date for this announcement. Some 83 firms are bidding for the job.