Tender

Norfolk County Council to launch 84 million pound highways professional services procurement

By Staff Writer  |  09-09-2026

Norfolk County Council expects to launch a formal procurement on 28 September 2026 for a highways and infrastructure Professional Services Contract with an estimated total value of 84,000,000 pounds excluding VAT (100,800,000 pounds including VAT). The council published a planned procurement notice on Find a Tender on 8 September 2026 at 3.58pm, under reference NCCT43472, confirming the date and the competitive flexible procedure under the Procurement Act 2023.

What the notice says

The notice refers back to a preliminary market engagement notice dated 10 June 2026, notice 054636-2026, and says that, as set out there, the council expects to launch the procurement for a highways and infrastructure services Professional Services Contract, which it calls the PSC, on 28 September 2026. Further detail is said to be contained in the preliminary market engagement document of 10 June 2026, a market update circulated on 31 July 2026 to all prospective bidders that engaged in that exercise, and a market update accompanying this notice. All three are available on the council's In-tend portal through the project's clarifications facility, and questions are to be raised through that portal.

The estimated total value is 84,000,000 pounds excluding VAT, above the relevant threshold. The estimated contract dates are 1 December 2027 to 30 November 2032, with a possible extension to 31 March 2040, which the notice gives as a total of 12 years and 4 months. On the extension, the notice says the details of how any extensions may be applied will be discussed with bidders during the dialogue phase of the procurement.

Scope by classification

The main procurement category is services. The CPV classifications listed are environmental standards for construction (71313420), engineering design services (71320000), marine survey services (71354500), technical planning services (71356400), urban planning services (71410000), construction consultancy services (71530000), technical testing, analysis and consultancy services (71600000), computer-site planning consultancy services (72130000), marine research services (73112000), business and management consultancy services (79410000), environmental impact assessment other than for construction (90711000) and environmental issues consultancy services (90713000).

The contract locations are given as Suffolk (UKH14), Norwich and East Norfolk (UKH15), North and West Norfolk (UKH16) and Breckland and South Norfolk (UKH17). The notice records the Government Procurement Agreement as the applicable trade agreement.

The estimated publication date of the tender notice is 28 September 2026. The submission type is requests to participate, with a deadline of 2 November 2026 at 10.00am. Tenders may be submitted electronically, in English. To express an interest, applicants must first register on the council's In-tend system, after which the project appears under the tenders section and applicants can express an interest to view the documentation. The estimated award decision date is 28 July 2027, which sits some four months ahead of the estimated contract start of 1 December 2027.

What the record does not say

This is a planned procurement notice, not a tender notice. It does not describe the services in prose beyond the title and the classifications, does not say whether the PSC will be let as a single contract or in lots, does not name an incumbent provider, and does not set out the evaluation criteria or the number of stages in the competitive flexible procedure beyond referring to a dialogue phase. The value is the council's estimate for the whole term and the notice does not say how it was built up or how the possible extension to 2040 bears on it. The notice records that an external adviser is providing advisory and assurance services on the procurement, but the contact organisation for all enquiries is the council itself.

The contracting authority is Norfolk County Council, County Hall, Martineau Lane, Norwich, NR1 2DH, a public authority in sub-central government in the Norwich and East Norfolk region.