Pictured above: DLA Piper partner Allison Page
Lawyers in DLA Piper's Finance and Projects team are celebrating
after closing a seven-year PFI project for Birmingham City Council
worth £2.7 billion.
The contract, which will last for 25 years, incorporates the
whole of Birmingham's highways network and includes the maintenance
and refurbishment of all its roads, bridges, street lights and
traffic management systems, was awarded to civil engineering
specialists Amey with funding from Bank of Ireland, Lloyds Banking
Group, Dexia Group, Nationwide, Natixis and NIBC Bank.
From next month, Amey will be responsible for the upkeep of all
Birmingham's roads, bridges, tunnels, traffic management systems
and gritting until 2035.
Led by DLA Piper partner Allison Page, the project is one of the
largest to be closed in the UK, and involved 15 lawyers from across
the international legal practice.
Allison said: "The sheer scale of this contract always meant
this would be a complex, long term procurement, but the changing
financial and political climate added an entirely new dynamic and
we are delighted to see it delivered.
"We have worked incredibly closely with the team at Birmingham
City Council on this project for seven years, and for us, the key
to success has been developing a real understanding of the civil
engineering aspects of the transaction and translating those into
contracted documentation.
John Blakemore, Acting Chief Highways Engineer at Birmingham
City Council added: "To finally secure this contract is a massive
achievement for the Council that will be of huge benefit to the
people of the city, seeing highways investment increase ten
fold.
"We have worked incredibly closely with Allison and the team at
DLA Piper throughout, and have been impressed by their grasp of
Birmingham's requirements.
"Their knowledge, commitment and pragmatic approach carried us
through to the end."
Russell Orme, Managing Partner of DLA Piper's Birmingham office
said: "We are delighted to have been able to support the City
Council throughout the procurement of this landmark project, which
will be of huge benefit to our city."