IN Brief:
- Pagabo has opened competition for a £4.15bn civil engineering, infrastructure, and enabling works framework.
- The four-year framework will combine existing civils, infrastructure, demolition, and land preparation scopes.
- Thirteen main lots will cover highways, rail, water, energy, aviation, defence, nuclear, demolition, and enabling works.
Pagabo has opened bidding for its National Framework for Civil Engineering, Infrastructure and Enabling Works 2026, a four-year procurement route valued at up to £4.15bn.
The framework is due to launch in September and will combine the scope of Pagabo’s existing civils and infrastructure framework with its demolition and land preparation framework. YPO will act as the centralised procurement authority, while Pagabo will manage framework design, delivery, and operation.
The agreement is intended for use by public-sector bodies and eligible private organisations, including local government, NHS and healthcare providers, blue light services, housing organisations, and education clients. Pagabo said the structure has been designed to support civil engineering, infrastructure, demolition, land preparation, and enabling works through a single procurement route.
The framework includes 13 main lots, with geographical sub-lots covering England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Several lots will also be split into value bands, ranging from projects up to £5m to schemes above that threshold.
The main work areas include highways, rail, water and environmental works, maritime, energy, aviation, defence and nuclear, rail systems, demolition, land preparation, and broader enabling works. The scope creates a broad route for early-stage infrastructure, site preparation, civil engineering, and specialist packages that often sit across separate procurement channels.
The framework is being procured under the newer public procurement regime, with compliance requirements linked to the Procurement Act 2023 and Procurement Regulations 2024. The open procedure is expected to attract national infrastructure contractors, regional civil engineering businesses, demolition specialists, enabling works companies, and suppliers seeking access to public-sector programmes.
The combined structure reflects a shift in framework design. Public-sector clients are increasingly looking to reduce fragmentation between demolition, remediation, land preparation, early infrastructure, and main civil engineering delivery. Bringing those activities into one framework may help clients move sites from preparation into delivery with fewer procurement interfaces, although risk allocation, lot selection, and call-off strategy will still determine how effectively projects move through the route.
Infrastructure procurement is also being shaped by tighter audit requirements, social value commitments, carbon reporting, and pressure to demonstrate value for money. Contractors are bidding into that environment while managing thin margins, inflation exposure, skills shortages, and longer tender cycles. A place on a framework remains commercially useful, but work will depend on subsequent call-offs, mini-competitions, and client confidence in delivery performance.
The breadth of the lot structure gives the framework potential application across brownfield regeneration, transport schemes, utilities, energy-related infrastructure, and complex public-sector sites. Specialist contractors may also gain clearer access to enabling and infrastructure packages that can otherwise sit beneath larger project routes. With public capital programmes under pressure to move quickly while staying compliant, the framework is likely to become a closely watched route for civil engineering and site preparation work from 2026 onward.
