Mace Group

Information

In July 2005 approval was given by the Department for Transport to release funds for certain elements of the Manchester Metrolink Phase 3 works that related to the capacity and renewal of the existing system. The work had a value of approximately £102m and included:

• Procurement of 8 new Light Rail Vehicles (LRVs)

• The replacement of a significant amount of life expired track

• New ticket vending machines (TVMs)
• DDA improvements to stations

• Certain power supply enhancements

• Depot facilities

The procurement and implementation of this scale of capacity enhancements and asset renewals was incompatible with the current form of contract with the operator. GMPTE wanted a new arrangement for operation and maintenance in place no later than the end of December 2006. Therefore a new operator (OpsCo) and a new infrastructure maintainer (InfraCo) needed to be procured.

Mace was commissioned to provide a full time consultant to be seconded into GMPTE to provide project management expertise and support to the Metrolink team. The Mace PM specifically managed the procurement process in respect of the service contracts two and three (OpsCo. and InfraCo). Works involved strategic programming, management of the OJEU tender process and establishing communication procedures/protocols with the tendering organisations.

The objective project was to let the four contracts in such a fashion that provided best value to the client, managed risk effectively and provided the client with greater control over its assets.