Balfours sets out to sharpen collaborative edge

Balfour Beatty has announced a new collaborative Strategic Design Consultant Partnership formed with Atkins, Mott MacDonald and WSP. The mutually beneficial arrangement will foster a new level of openness, collaboration and innovation, the contractor's announcement said.

These three consultants will now be the focus of Balfours' procurement  of design services. A 'community of practice' involving designers and engineers from all four companies will be developed to identify solutions in key areas, such as value engineering and health and safety through design. The contractor claims that for clients the new partnership will bring better, more consistent practices and so reduced costs and greater efficiency within construction programmes.

Balfour Beatty's managing director for major projects, Stephen Tarr, 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."

Design partnership director for Mott MacDonald,  Stephen Lawrence, 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 Balfour Beatty's ‘Build to Last’ transformation programme."

Balfour Beatty also announced that the new partnership will be led by the company's newly appointed design partnership director Robin Bashford. Previously a key member of the contractor's major projects bid team, Bashford will be responsible for working with the three consultants to deliver value for the contractor's clients.