Amey Sir Robert McAlpine – partnership working

OVERVIEW

Amey and Sir Robert McAlpine formed a collaborative partnership agreement in 2018, which was developed to enable both companies to rebuild their presence in the highway civils construction market.

The first success for the partnership was being awarded a Delivery Integration Partner contract on behalf of Highways England in 2019. Working across the North of England, Amey Sir Robert McAlpine were contracted to design and construct motorway and trunk road improvement projects worth up to £100m, to support Highways England’s next ambitious phase of the Road Investment Strategy.

APPROACH

Transport Infrastructure and Consulting work in partnership, within the joint venture, to deliver a breadth of services including technical design, client liaison and partnership working.

We work as an integrated project team with Highways England and have implemented collaborative behavioural change programmes to build our partnership ethos. One partnership lead operates on behalf of the whole team as the main point of contact for the Highways England leadership team.

BENEFITS

• Currently, the top performing Band A supplier, and consistently in the top three overall Delivery Integration Partners.
• We have the ability to reach back into the full Consulting team to different resources as the design and construction changes through the programme delivery.
• With the combined knowledge of Highways England’s wider priorities as well as scheme delivery, our Transport Infrastructure and Consulting teams focus more intensively on the client’s imperatives and delivering well against the Contract Performance Framework (CPF). Continued strong CPF performance should give the partnership more access to future work.
• Transport Infrastructure and Consulting have agreed to joint and several liability which maximises transparency on any potential commercial tensions. Both parties are accountable for any commercial impact to encourage more effective working and maximise positive impact on margin.
• All parts of the business are supported to win work through an improved joint planning process prior to, and during, bidding, and utilising Amey-wide knowledge rather than focusing on only individual areas.