Liverpool-based Peel Ports Group, the UK’s second-largest port operator, is inviting contractors to submit bids for two new frameworks covering a “major long-term programme of construction works” across its UK and Ireland sites worth a total of £750 million.

The port operator is seeking to appoint contractors to the two frameworks for a period of up to eight years, with one framework covering general construction and the other covering marine construction.

The frameworks cover construction projects across the group’s portfolio of UK and Ireland ports, including the Port of Liverpool, Heysham Port, Manchester Ship Canal, London Medway, Clydeport, Great Yarmouth and Dublin Port.

Lewis McIntyre, Managing Director — Port Services at Peel Ports Group, said: “Our ports form a network of busy logistics hubs servicing local, national and global supply chains, and this move represents a huge step in our efforts to futureproof that network, so we can keep responding and adapting to our port users’ needs in an agile way.

“The long-term nature of these framework agreements allows us to build meaningful, commercially sustainable partnerships with our construction contractors.

“It further allows us to appoint a collection of regional suppliers to give us breadth and depth of scope, skill, and responsiveness; the way the frameworks are structured provides invaluable opportunities for the successful partners to design and build  sustainable solutions for our various projects, in what will be a truly collaborative approach as we aim for Net zero by 2040.”

The procurement process is expected to take place throughout 2024, with contracts expected to be awarded towards the end of 2024.