Contract award
Caerphilly makes direct award for interchange design through RIBA stage four
By Staff Writer | 24 August 2026
Caerphilly County Borough Council has published a contract award notice recording a direct award to Transport for Wales for the professional services needed to take the Caerphilly Interchange scheme through RIBA Stage 4. The contract value is recorded as 2,572,800 pounds excluding value added tax. The notice was published on 21 August 2026 under the identifier 2026/S 000-079797 and carries the council reference CCBC/PROC358/26/JT.
The scope on the notice is a professional services commission rather than construction. The council states that it intends to award directly to Transport for Wales for the provision of project management, design development, approvals, cost planning, procurement support and associated professional services required to progress the project through RIBA Stage 4. The main procurement category is services and the classification is construction project management services. The contract location is recorded as the Gwent Valleys.
The contract value is 2,572,800 pounds excluding value added tax and 3,216,000 pounds including it. The notice's own description gives the figure the other way round, stating that the estimated contract value is 3.216 million pounds inclusive of value added tax, and the two agree. The award decision date is 20 August 2026, the standstill period of eight working days ends on 2 September 2026, and the earliest date the contract will be signed is 2 September 2026.
The estimated contract dates run from 2 September 2026 to 31 March 2027, with a possible extension to 31 March 2028. The extension description on the notice is unusually specific about what would trigger it: the council reserves the right to extend for up to twelve months to allow for completion of the services and any additional professional services required as a consequence of programme delays, funding approvals, statutory approvals, design development, procurement activities, stakeholder requirements, utility diversions, rail interface requirements, or other project related matters necessary to progress the scheme.
Why the direct award is justified on the notice
The notice sets out the council's reasoning rather than leaving it implied. It records that the contract forms part of the ongoing development of the Caerphilly Interchange scheme, which has been progressing since 2020 and is supported through regional funding arrangements. It states that Transport for Wales acts as the established lead delivery organisation for the project and is responsible for managing all rail interfaces, statutory and technical approvals, project governance arrangements, and the specialist consultant team required for scheme development. The commission is described as covering the delivery of Plan of Work C plus services to prepare the scheme for delivery, including management of consultants and contractors appointed through Transport for Wales's existing procurement arrangements.
What the practitioner should take from this
The structure here is one a designer or contractor hoping to work on the scheme needs to read carefully. The council is not procuring the consultant team. It is paying Transport for Wales to manage a consultant team that Transport for Wales appoints through its own arrangements. The route to this project for a professional firm therefore runs through those arrangements rather than through a Caerphilly tender, and no competition for the individual disciplines will appear on the council's own notices.
The standstill period is the second point. Eight working days from 20 August 2026 to 2 September 2026 is the window in which the direct award can be challenged, and it closes before any construction procurement begins. A firm that considers a direct award to a public body for services of this kind is not properly justified has that window and no other.
Third, RIBA Stage 4 is technical design. A commission that stops there tells a reader the scheme has not yet reached the point of a main works procurement, and the contract dates confirm it: the base period ends on 31 March 2027, which is a financial year end rather than a construction milestone. The twelve month extension option and the list of things that might trigger it, which runs to statutory approvals, funding approvals, utility diversions and rail interface requirements, is a candid statement that the council expects the design stage to be capable of slipping.
The notice does not publish a construction value for the interchange, a works start date, a completion date, the identity of any consultant working under Transport for Wales, or the source of the regional funding it refers to. None of those has been supplied here.