Birmingham City Council appoints four firms to transport and infrastructure framework

Birmingham City Council has appointed AtkinsRéalis, Jacobs, Mott MacDonald and Pell Frischmann Consultants to its Transportation and Infrastructure Professional Services Framework, a major consultancy agreement expected to support highways and infrastructure projects across the city and wider Midlands region over the next eight years.

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The framework, valued at up to £400m excluding VAT, will provide multidisciplinary design and advisory services covering areas including highways engineering, transport planning, drainage, air quality, structural engineering, traffic systems and wider infrastructure consultancy. Approximately £240m of the projected spending is expected to relate directly to Birmingham City Council projects, with the remaining work potentially commissioned by other public bodies across the East and West Midlands through access agreements.

The council said the framework has been established under the Procurement Act 2023 as an “open model”, allowing suppliers to be refreshed or added during the life of the agreement rather than fixing membership for the entire contract period. The framework is scheduled to run from 2026 until 2034 under NEC4 contract terms.

According to procurement documents, the framework is intended to cover a broad range of technical and professional services associated with transport and civil infrastructure delivery. These include engineering design, project management, road safety audits, sustainability and environmental advice, urban design, drainage services, street lighting, archaeology and air quality management.

Eight organisations are understood to have bid for places on the framework before the final four firms were selected. Birmingham City Council also specified that at least 20% of services delivered through the framework must be subcontracted to small and medium-sized enterprises.

The appointments come as Birmingham continues to progress a series of transport, regeneration and public realm schemes linked to wider infrastructure investment and urban development plans across the city. Previous frameworks have supported projects ranging from highways upgrades and Metro extensions to bridge maintenance and transport strategy work.