BWL Supports a Successful Uisce Éireann Framework Submission
Client: Confidential
Client Sector: Utilities
Contract: Uisce Éireann – General Vegetation Removal and Site Clearance Works
Industry / Type of works: Vegetation removal, site clearance, tree felling, boundary fencing and general groundworks on a national water and wastewater utility network
Location: Republic of Ireland (national)
Result: Successful
Scope of the Client’s Contracts
Uisce Éireann (formerly Irish Water) established a Framework to identify and pre-qualify contractors for the provision of general building and civil engineering maintenance and repair works across its national water and wastewater estate. Operating under the EU utilities procurement regime and run through the eTenders platform, the Framework was divided into six lots covering emergency and reactive civil engineering, network repairs, works to reservoirs and buildings, vegetation and site clearance, reinstatement, and leak detection. It is a long-term arrangement, established for a term of up to 20 years with annual options to extend.
Our Client applied for qualification under Lot 4 (General Vegetation Removal and Site Clearance Works), covering non-reactive repair and maintenance works for general groundworks, including vegetation removal, site clearance, tree felling, boundary fencing and the treatment and removal of invasive species such as Japanese knotweed. Our Client engaged BWL Group to support the development and submission of their qualification response through our bid writing and bid management services.
BWL Support
BWL assigned a dedicated bid writing and management team to work alongside our Client’s team throughout the qualification process. The bid was led by Senior Bid Writer, Clare Abbott, with support from three additional writers to ensure tight timescales were met.
The team began by reviewing the full tender documentation and the published tender clarifications. From this review, the team mapped every requirement to the buyer’s scoring methodology and developed storyboards for each scored response, structured to address the specific criteria, sub-criteria and minimum thresholds set out across the questionnaire.
The team worked with our Client’s subject matter experts to draw out the evidence, experience and operational detail needed to populate each response, including the Lot 4 project reference, named-personnel CVs, and the method statements required for general groundworks and site clearance. BWL managed a workflow of storyboarding, drafting, internal review and finalisation to produce a fully compliant submission within the Client’s required timescale.
Challenges
The key challenge associated with this submission related to time, with BWL having to mobilise and complete the bid within a 10-day window. Applicants were assessed against Experience (300 marks, 60%), Health and Safety (400 marks, 60%), Quality Assurance (100 marks, 50%), Sustainability (100 marks, 40%), Information Security and Data Protection (80 marks, 50%) and Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (20 marks, 50%). The Health and Safety section was further broken down into role-based sub-sections, including Contractor, Project Supervisor Construction Stage, Project Supervisor Design Process and Designer, each carrying an additional minimum pass mark, with named-personnel evidence required against the prescribed CV and project reference templates.
The Lot 4 response also required a minimum of two detailed method statements demonstrating safe delivery of general groundworks and site clearance, supported by comprehensive risk assessments addressing hazards such as traffic and pedestrian management, plant and machinery, work at height, working near and isolating services, waste management, and working in a live operational environment.
Outcome
The submission successfully qualified our Client onto Uisce Éireann’s Framework for Lot 4. Reflecting on their experience of working with BWL, our Client said:
“We have used BWL’s services twice in the last year and highly recommend them. Their expertise, professionalism and proficiency is second to none. They had a quick turnaround, meeting our tight deadlines, and with that, our bids have been successful. Thank you to all the team at BWL.”
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