18 March 2003

This information is provided courtesy of Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free on-line information service.

www.law-now.com

Highways Agency consultation document: Improving DBFOs

The UK Government's "Transport 2010 : the 10 Year Plan"
details the measures they will put in place to ease
congestion, provide effective maintenance, safer travel
conditions, better information to the road user, smarter and
quieter roads and deliver all these in partnership with
industry.

The Highways Agency, an Executive Agency of the Department
for Transport, manages and maintains the network of trunk
roads and motorways in England on behalf of the Secretary
of State. The Agency has asked for industry input on the
future use of private finance to deliver better services to
road users with the publication of a major consultation
document "Improving DBFOs".

It is recognised that some problems on the network can only
be solved by increasing capacity and the 10 Year Plan
envisages that around 25 per cent (by value) of current and
new major schemes will be procured using private finance,
including the Design, Build, Finance and Operate (DBFO)
contract.

The Agency intends to speed up the delivery of future DBFO
projects, reduce transaction costs for all parties during
the tender period and improve the flexibility of the DBFO
contract itself.

The document examines the Agency's DBFO procurement processes
and offers ideas to enable quicker delivery of projects,
reduced transaction costs, and greater flexibility in the
operation of the contracts. It looks at improvements in the
tender process, such as the provision of more reliable data
and the introduction of early contractor involvement.

CMS Cameron McKenna have advised on a number of DBFO road
projects and were pleased to respond to the consultation
document. To view our response, please click/copy and
paste this link:
www.law-now.com/Law-Now/press.cfm?id=5247

To view the consultation document itself, please follow this
link to the Highways Agency site:
http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/dbfo/dbfo_improve_dec_02/index.htm

If you would like any further information in relation to
this issue, please contact Trevor Butcher at
trevor.butcher@cmck.com or on +44(0)20 7367 2517.