Coventry Framework Partnership

The paper describes the establishment of a framework partnership involving Coventry City Council as highway authority, an engineering consultant and four contractors. The overall objective was to deliver improved performance for the implementation of an increased programme of transportation and civil engineering projects. The main feature of the partnership was the Coventry model, which included: a partnering board made up of representatives of all the parties and led by key councillors; joint financial incentives based on a pain/gain mechanism; joint value management/value engineering and open-book accounting to maximise cost savings; and performance-based contract extensions. Other supporting features were: a cost database continually updated by completed contracts; a strong emphasis on communications both between the members of the partnership and with all parties involved in specific projects; a computerised project status database to enable access to current financial and programme data on each project; quantitative and qualitative performance assessment; and an action plan of continuous comprehensive improvement. After three years the results of the framework partnership were encouraging, with rising levels of satisfaction, significant savings in design and construction costs, and a proven ability to react to changing and challenging circumstances.