East West Rail opens £450m early works framework race

East West Rail has launched a £450m competition for contractors to prepare the route for main construction. The Programme Support Works Framework splits into six lots covering early civils, ground investigations, archaeology and environmental work.

A single contractor will take the £80m principal contractor and integrator role at Lot 0. That firm will oversee site safety, coordinate work across the lots and maintain the master programme. For a tier one bidder, the role amounts to running the pre-construction phase of the entire route before main works contractors ever mobilise.

How is the £450m split?

The six lots carry sharply different values:

• Lot 0 – Integrator and principal contractor: £80m
• Lot 1 – Historic environment: £7.5m
• Lot 2 – Ground investigation and monitoring: £40m
• Lot 3 – Environmental and ecological surveys: £7m
• Lot 4 – Environmental and ecological mitigation: £20m
• Lot 5 – Enabling works: £133m

Multiple suppliers will win places on each of the five specialist lots. East West Rail has designed the packages to attract SMEs and tier two and three firms, which widens the field well beyond the integrator contest.

What does the biggest lot cover?

Lot 5, the £133m enabling works package, is the largest listed opportunity. It covers compounds, temporary access roads, haul routes, drainage, fencing and bases for temporary structures. It also includes utilities detection, trial holes and trenching to pin down underground services and reduce the risk of later diversions. Contractors who win this work will effectively set the conditions every future main works contractor inherits.

What is the timetable?

The framework starts in February 2028 for an initial four years, with extensions potentially carrying it through to January 2036. Firms must submit requests to participate by 13 November, and East West Rail expects to make the award on 4 January 2028. That leaves roughly 26 months between award and mobilisation.

The £450m figure is indicative. East West Rail has made no commitment to spend the full amount over the eight-year reference period. Network Rail will also be able to call off work through the framework, which extends the potential pipeline beyond the East West Rail programme itself.

East West Rail said the work would "accelerate readiness for main construction, reduce delivery risk and allow future contractors to mobilise efficiently". In practical terms, the framework shifts de-risking — ground data, ecology, archaeology, utilities — ahead of the main civils packages, so the eventual main works contractors bid on firmer information.

Bidders can find the tender documentation through the East West Rail procurement portal.