On this page you can read about the steps in the Tender process:
It is a requirement of Community Spaces that all items of work over £10,000 must go to competitive tender and the tender returns (submissions) must be evaluated using a formal process and assessed using combination of quality and price.
The Committee made the decision early on that the works would be let as a single contract. There are many reasons for this:
Since the approval back in February, the Committee, our Project Manager and our Landscape Architect have been working hard to prepare a Tender Pack to send to selected contractors. This was sent out in mid April 2012. The Tender Pack can be found here.
The Tender Pack has numerous documents. The main ones are:
In all there were 31 documents.
Whilst all the documents were being prepared we continued to refine the design and to make decisions, as the likely cost was rising above our budget. Some of the main issues arising were:
Wiltshire Council, the land owners, had a preference for the new footbridge to be in Douglas Fir rather than oak. They also requested that the anti-slip material on the footbridge and platform were not varnish and sand but screw on anti-slip strips or a material covering (like the footbridge into Tesco from Biss Meadow). The Committee preferred the strips as the material would hide the oak and would not last so long. But the strips cost over £2,400! Leo Wirtz, Wiltshire Council's Senior Countryside Ranger, suggested we laid the strips ourselves and offered to help. And the Rights of Way department said they would provide a footbridge kit free of charge to help us afford the anti-slip strips. We are very grateful for Leo and to Julian Haines and Mike Crook of the Rights of Way department for their help and support.
Early in 2012 the existing platform became unsafe and Wiltshire Council removed the decking and fenced off the area. This exposed the timber retaining wall behind the platform and it showed significant signs of rotting. A decision was made to replace it as there was a risk that in the not too distant future it could collapse and cause the planned interpretation area to collapse. A new wall was estimated to cost an additional £1,000.
With the platform gone, it did give us an opportunity to probe the hardness of the bottom of the pond and to see if the existing platform posts were embedded in concrete. The investigation showed the ground to be firm and the platform posts were indeed embedded in concrete but not the retaining wall. This will help the contractors to price the works.
Piling the posts and retaining wall (or setting them into concrete) is a specialist area. We needed to retain a Structural Engineer to do the complex calculations and someone who had professional indemnity insurance. After getting quotes of up to £5,000 we managed to find David Franklin Associates. As this is a community project they were more accommodating on fees. David Franklin has offered to give some free advice to the chosen contractor when they commence piling. We are grateful to David for his help.
The viewing area above the platform has a semi-circular seat over 4.5 metres long (that's about 15 feet in old money). Our architect estimated the cost at £3,000! Again Leo Wirtz came to the rescue and has offered to make it for free (excepting the materials which will cost about £900 for oak). We are again very grateful for Leo's help.
One contractor who visited the site expressed concern about the cost of delivering aggregates from the West Ashton Road access point. He said that aggregates in bulk (i.e. lorry loads of 16 tonnes a time) cost £8-£10 per tonne but in 1 tonne bags they cost £30-£35 per tonne. We estimate we need 90 tonnes, so a potential extra cost of over £2,400 plus the extra labour to move them from the access point to the site - potentially another £1,300 more! We are looking at other options.
All these changes meant changes to the drawings and plans and we are very grateful to Mark Dawson our Landscape Architect for being so patient and accommodating.
So with the escalating costs we looked again at the whole scheme. By removing the picnic tables and associated groundworks and taking into account the planned volunteer labour, the free footbridge and moving the resin surround to our later sustainability grant*, we managed to get the works back within budget - provided the estimates are realistic!
Our tender will be for a contract for £46,500. The remaining £3,500 is for contingency, the wood for the semi-circular seat and funds for the launch event.
* The sustainability grant is a follow-on Big Lottery grant to be used after the event to support community involvement. This will fund the interpretation panel and the mosaic and their installation onto a granite resin bound base. The design of these items will involve the community.
We initially looked for local contractors but found few with the experience of working in green oak, making larger custom platforms and working in sensitive river areas. Enquires were finding companies in such places as Devon and Surrey. In all 26 companies were contacted. Some declined and many were eliminated when assessed for experience in large platforms and use of green oak; retaining walls & piling; landscaping; and habitat works.
Community Spaces recommend that 6 contractors are invited and ideally at least 3 make a submission. If less than 3 make a submission then we will need approval from Community Spaces to proceed and they could well insist on a re-tender.
Our Accountable Body is Wiltshire Council, and the tender will be issued via their Procurement Department. A number of meetings were held with them to agree the tender process, the tender documents and the tender evaluation system.
Each aspect of the Part A Company and B Approach submissions is evaluated using a set of pre-defined criteria and are awarded marks. The criteria are also weighted so that important aspects have more bearing on the contractor selected. Part C Price is also scored and then the 3 parts are individually weighted: 30% / 30% / 40%, that is the contractor's experience and approach (the Quality) are together more important than the Price.
The Committee spent many an evening defining all the criteria, how they would be assessed and their weightings. The criteria and weighting have to be given to the tenderers (contractors) in the Invitation to Tender document but not the way they are marked.
The following documents were created for the use of Procurement and the Committee:
The tender return date is the 8 May 2012. Two persons from the Friends' Committee together with a Procurement Officer will open and log the tenders received. Shortly after that, the whole Committee will note the ones returned and be given a training session in how to assess the tenders.
Assessment starts with Part A Company. Committee members individually assess the submissions using the previously agreed marking system. The whole Committee then meets to agree a consensus score. These are entered into the Evaluation Matrix. The same process is repeated for Part B Approach.
The Part A and B are then combined with the Part C Price. The Evaluation Matrix will then calculate the leading contractor, known as the Preferred Bidder.
Based on the Price of the Preferred Bidder, the Committee may need to make a decision as to which parts of the scheme (the components) to include and which parts to excluded as unaffordable. This is likely to be based on how important the components is, whether we can build it ourselves and whether we could get funding from elsewhere.
The Committee will then follow-up the project references for the Preferred Bidder by visiting the sites and speaking to their clients. Meanwhile, Procurement will obtain bank references. If the Preferred Bidder passes all these validation checks then they become the Comfirmed Bidder but subject to signing of the contract.
The Tender Record Sheet is then completed and sent to Community Spaces. It states why the selected contractor was chosen and declaration that the proper evaluation process was followed. We also have to provide photographic evidence!
Once approval is received from Community Spaces then Procurement completes the NEC2 Short contract and sends it to the Comfirmed Bidder and a date is arranged for both parties to meet and sign the contract.
We hope to achieve this by mid June so that the chosen contractor can prepare for to commence the project in July and complete it by the end of August 2012.
This pond project is complex and demanding. There are many facets to it, numerous different organisations and people involved, and a fixed deadline. Project Management is key. We have created a Stage 3 Project Timetable that sets out the steps as well as an outline plan for Stage 4, the Construction.
Please support us in any way you are able. Contact Alan Cooper, the webmaster using this contact form or the links on this page. If you can help us with the financial cost of undertaking this project then please send us a donation.
Thank you for those individuals from diverse organisations who have helped throughout Stage 2 or 3 or on specific aspects:
Funded by:
The Biss Meadows Pond Restoration project has been funded through the Community Spaces programme which is being managed by Groundwork UK as an Award Partner to the Big Lottery Fund. Community Spaces is part of the Big Lottery Fund’s Changing Spaces initiative. Community First (Landfill Tax Grant) has funded the professional fees and other fees. Wiltshire Council has contributed funds, people's time and a new footbridge.