United Utilities has named seven partners to help deliver £3bn of major infrastructure work.
Kier, Murphy and Costain have been picked by the North West water company alongside C2V (a VolkerStevin/Jacobs joint venture), Mott Macdonald Bentley and MWH Treatment.
The works form part of United Utilities’ £13.7bn investment plan for 2025-2030 (Asset Management Plan 8), which has been submitted to water regulator Ofwat for approval.
Infrastructure work will include upgrading wastewater treatment works and reducing storm overflow activations “by delivering the largest spill reduction programme in the UK”, according to United Utilities.
In addition to £3bn of major infrastructure work, the construction partners are also expected to work on non-infrastructure-related capital works during the period.
United Utilities has not provided an approximate value for the non-infrastructure works but its proposed total £13.7bn investment includes base operating costs as well as capital expenditure across the five-year period.
United Utilities said the allocation of projects between delivery partners will be determined at a later stage. It has not described the roles it expects each partner to carry out.
However, Costain said it expects its services delivered to include “project management, engineering and design services” as well as “construction and asset supportability services”.
United Utilities said in addition to hiring large suppliers it was “keen to tap into the local supply chain and will be announcing further appointments of more delivery partners in the coming months”.
The company said its £13.7bn investment plan would support 30,000 jobs, including 7,000 new jobs.
