People who are involved in transport want to be sure that they will reach their destination on time, regardless of the means of transport. The government is being challenged to make optimum use of the increasingly scarce space around us. This asks for ingenious solutions and creative ideas.
PPP also takes into account the ‘social’ infrastructure in this sector, as well as roads and railway. Think of provision of utilities, like waste water purification, waste incineration, street lighting, harbours and airports. Many of these PPS-market segments are as yet untapped in The Netherlands, but are beginning to be part of the public good elsewhere in the world. Strukton Integral Projects has had its first experience in waste water purification with the DBFM-project Harnaschpolder. A successful PPS-project and the first in the Dutch water sector.
Slow start-up
The HSL Infra provider, A59 and N31 were the first PPS-projects in the railways and roads infrastructure in The Netherlands. Following this, the PPS Taskforce designated twelve more projects in 2005 to be awarded using the PPS approach. Yet PPS is still only starting slowly in the rail and road segment in terms of infrastructure, in spite of the fact that various aids have been developed in the form of standard contracts and working guidelines.
One of the causes of this slow development is the way public decisions are made. The 'Interweaving Mode of Operation' (Butt 2005), an instrument that has been jointly developed by government and private market, tries to meet this by bringing tender award and public decision making parallel to each other. The 'New Market Approach Mode of Operation'(February 2006), and the 'Market Consultation Mode of Operation' (July 2006) were developed to create room for private solutions taking into account necessity and the legal frameworks of public decision applicable to infrastructure. Strukton Integral Projects, as a member of Building Netherlands, has actively participated in the make-up of these three modes of operation. We are convinced that they can contribute to the deal flow of this type of infrastructure projects.
These and other activities of the PPS Task Force, led in July 2005 to the Ministry of Public Works beginning the award process for the project 'Capacity Expansion Coentunnel' in the form of a DBFM approach. This is a complex and extensive project, which was awarded before the Traject decision has been finalised. This also provided the first experiences with (partial) traffic interweaving. Strukton Integral Projects, as a member of the consortium GATEwest, participated in this tender, organised on the basis of Competitive Dialogue. This type of award brings the client and candidates into a dialogue with each other. It gives private parties the room to contribute their own innovative solutions, that must fit within the requirements of the government Act for that Traject.
Combination of infrastructure and area development
The 'A2 Maastricht' started at the end of 2006 as the first project in which infrastructure and area development were brought to the market in combination. The Traject Act and Environmental Planning procedures are also being run parallel to this. The tender process for this project is in the form of a Competitive Dialogue. Strukton is participating in this project together with Ballast Nedam through the consortium Avenue2. Characteristics of the project are the extent (plan development, infrastructure, real estate), the complexity in parallel award and decision-making procedures and the long preparation time (almost three years). The latter is the consequence of early market participation in these sorts of infrastructure projects.
The Project Mainport Corridor South is also characteristic of the new approach. Allowing private parties to think with us in market consultations about the definition of scope (which must all be a part of the project) and approach (how can the project be best marketed so that the largest extra value is obtained). Strukton Integral Projects is an advocate of private market consultation and actively participated in the first consultation in 2005/2006 (in their own name). We are currently participating with the consortium First STEP Partnership in the second market consultation, which is intended to address optisation of scope, business case and contract form for the A4-corridor.
Contact
Maarten Almekinders, Project Manager Strukton Integrale Projecten (maarten.almekinders@strukton.com)