Following the go-ahead for the New Tyne Crossing by the Secretary of State for Transport, the TWPTA will now proceed with the appointment of a Concessionaire to finance, detail design, and construct the new tunnel and to operate and maintain the new and existing tunnels. This process is known as Procurement and involves teams of suitable companies firstly pre-qualifying onto a short list. The selected teams then competitively bid for the project.

The TWPTA began the process of pre-qualifying interested parties before the decision by the Secretary of State. This is normal practice and did not mean that the TWPTA had pre-judged the outcome of the Public Inquiry.

The reason for doing this was to ensure the earliest possible start on construction of the New Tyne Crossing should it be approved. More information about this process is available under the "Procurement" tab on the menu bar above and this section will be extended as more information is released.

The project procurement will be fully compliant with all relevant UK and EU requirements. There are several stages to this process and these are briefly described below

Prior Information Notice (PIN).

The PIN informed potential bidders that the project was to be tendered. The PIN was issued in December 2003.

Click here to see a copy of the PIN (PDF Format, 34Kb).

Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) Notice.

The Contract Notice was published on 17 th March 2004 in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). This Notice invited interested parties to apply for a Prequalification Questionnaire (PQQ) and an Invitation to Submit Outline Proposals (ISOP).

Click here to see a copy of the OJEU notice (PDF Format, 38Kb).

Pre-qualification.

Potential bidders returned the PQQ and ISOP documents to the TWPTA. They were evaluated, the PQQ first and the ISOP only if the PQQ was satisfactory. Following the evaluation procedure the TWPTA has selected the four bidders to be invited to tender for the project if the scheme is approved.

Invitation to Tender (ITN).

The ITN will be issued to short listed bidders in autumn 2005.