Relentless collaboration delivers Balfour Beatty’s Strategic Design Consultant Partnership
Balfour Beatty, the international infrastructure group, today announces the formation of a collaborative UK Strategic Design Consultant Partnership with Atkins, Mott MacDonald and WSP.
This mutually beneficial partnership will foster a new level of openness, collaboration and innovation never before seen within the construction industry.
The Partnership will focus Balfour Beatty’s procurement of design consultants for its projects towards Atkins, Mott MacDonald and WSP with standard terms and conditions. A community of practice will bring designers and engineers from the four companies together to find solutions in key areas such as health and safety through design, value engineering and the use of more cost-effective design resources.
Customers will benefit from earlier engagement with a co-ordinated collaborative team and improved, consistent working practices which will ultimately reduce construction and programme costs.
The Partnership will be led by Balfour Beatty’s newly-appointed Strategic Design Consultant Partnership Director, Robin Bashford. Robin will be responsible for implementing the Partnership working with the three design consultants to deliver increased value to customers. Prior to his appointment, Robin held a senior work winning role within Balfour Beatty’s Major Projects business and has been with the company since 2013.
Stephen Tarr, Managing Director for Balfour Beatty’s Major Projects business and Executive Committee Sponsor for the Partnership, said “This newly formed Strategic Design Consultant Partnership represents collaboration in its purest form. Providing a new and refreshed way of working between contractor and designer, I am delighted to announce that we are joining together with Atkins, Mott MacDonald and WSP to deliver the very best of the industry’s ability and capability to provide a complete, refined and Expert offering to our customers”
“This Partnership will draw on decades of industry experience and combine it with the modern-day technological expertise of our engineers and designers to deliver a truly Lean, Expert, Trusted and Safe way of working together as an industry”.
Mike McNicholas, Managing Director of Atkins’ Infrastructure division, said: “Infrastructure investment continues to be a high priority for the UK, but clients couldn’t be clearer in their message to industry that we need to deliver it differently to provide better value and outcomes for them, their end users and those funding the projects. A greater use of technology is widely acknowledged as one way of doing this, but equally as important will be industry leading companies coming together to innovate and collaborate more effectively. This Partnership is an exciting step forward in achieving these goals”.
Stephen Lawrence, Mott MacDonald’s Design Partnership Director said: “Our collaboration with Balfour Beatty goes back nearly 35 years and we’re looking forward to building an even stronger working relationship. We’ve worked together to successfully deliver some of the UK’s most well-known infrastructure such as Heathrow T2B, A3 Hindhead and London Underground’s Jubilee Line Extension, and our joint venture Balfour Beatty Mott MacDonald continues to provide service excellence in the highways maintenance industry.”
“This strategic partnership will provide access to our global network of experts to offer new ideas, drive value and efficiency into the design process and fully support their ‘Build to Last’ transformation programme,” Stephen added.
Alistair Kennedy, WSP’s Executive Director responsible for the new partnership said: “We are delighted to have been selected by Balfour Beatty as a strategic partner. Our two companies already work closely together across a wide spectrum of projects and WSP is excited to have the opportunity to be part of this innovative and collaborative approach. We look forward to working together to challenge the status quo for design build contracting in the UK”.
Balfour Beatty is a leading international infrastructure group. With 30,000 employees, they finance, develop, build and maintain complex infrastructure such as transportation, power and utility systems, social and commercial buildings. Their main geographies are the UK, US and Far East and over the last 100 years have created iconic buildings and infrastructure all over the world including the London Olympics’ Aquatic Centre, Hong Kong’s first Zero Carbon building, the National Museum of the Marine Corps in the US and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.
Atkins is one of the world’s most respected design, engineering and project management consultancies, employing some 18,300 people across the UK, North America, Middle East, Asia Pacific and Europe. They build long term trusted partnerships to create a world where lives are enriched through the implementation of our ideas.
Mott MacDonald is opening opportunities with connected thinking. Mott MacDonald is a US$2bn engineering, management and development consultancy, involved in solving some of the world’s most urgent social, environmental and economic challenges and helping governments and businesses plan, deliver and sustain their strategic goals while responding to humanitarian and natural emergencies and improving people’s lives. Their expertise includes buildings, communications, defence, education, environment, health, industry, mining, oil and gas, power, transport, urban development, water, wastewater and more. Skills encompass planning, studies and design, project finance, technical advisory services, project and programme management, management consultancy and beyond. For every project, they blend the talent needed to create the right result – appropriate; cost, carbon and resource-efficient; safe, easy and swift to deliver and operate; reliable and resilient.
WSP is one of the world’s leading engineering professional services consulting firms. Dedicated to local communities and propelled by international brainpower, they are technical experts and strategic advisors including engineers, technicians, scientists, architects, planners, surveyors and environmental specialists, as well as other design, program and construction management professionals. They design lasting solutions in the Property & Buildings, Transportation & Infrastructure, Environment, Industry, Resources (including Mining and Oil & Gas) and Power & Energy sectors as well as project delivery and strategic consulting services. With 7,000 talented people in the UK (including Mouchel Consulting) and 36,000 globally, WSP engineer projects that will help societies grow for lifetimes to come and have been involved in many high profile UK projects including the Shard, Crossrail, Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Manchester Metrolink, M1 Smart Motorway, the re-development of London Bridge Station, and the London Olympic & Paralympic Route Network.
