Bradford Beck Culvert Remediation Scheme

City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council used NEC3 Engineering and Construction Contract (ECC) Option A (priced contract with activity schedule) to safely reline a 22 m section of the Bradford Beck culvert beneath the former Bradford Odeon building - where corroded iron beams supporting the 1930 structure over the culvert were at risk of collapse - completing 13 days early, on budget, with zero compensation events and an out-turn cost exactly as tendered. The £1.3 million emergency design and build contract, let to JN Bentley in June 2022 and completed in January 2023, was shortlisted for Upgrade and Renewal Project of the Year at the 2023 British Construction Industry Awards. 

An emergency repair through a 1930s building floor 

Bradford Beck runs in culvert beneath much of Bradford city centre. The section beneath the former Bradford Odeon on New Victoria Street - currently being converted into Bradford Live, a 4,000-capacity events venue - was found during conversion works to be supported on heavily corroded iron beams at risk of structural collapse. The risk to the building above and the culvert below required emergency action. JN Bentley's design solution was to install twin structural glass-reinforced-polymer liners inside the existing culvert and grout them into place by drilling through the building's floor slab from above - avoiding any disruption to the live conversion works overhead. The nearest culvert access point was 100 m upstream, requiring liner sections to be carefully carried through the culvert to the works location. During construction, most of the water flow in the beck was diverted via a temporary dam into a flood relief tunnel 500 m upstream, with residual flows carried through the works area in two 225 mm diameter pipes and temporary pumps on standby upstream in case of heavy rainfall. 

Easy to understand, no compensation events, 13 days early 

Stuart Peder, Bradford's NEC project manager, says the council has a strong preference for NEC contracts because of their accessibility. As a part-time project manager without a dedicated contract management role, he finds NEC easy to understand and straightforward to apply in practice. ECC Option A was selected specifically to give the council certainty on cost outcome from the outset, an important consideration on an emergency works project where budget approval had been secured against a fixed estimate. 

Peder says the contract was prepared collaboratively with JN Bentley to allocate risks equitably from the start. That early contractor involvement - though informal rather than a formal Option X22 provision - helped to ensure the design solution was practical and the programme realistic before the contract was executed. Throughout construction, Peder was kept fully informed by telephone and email at every stage, and the contractor maintained close liaison with the building works contractor operating above. The NEC requirement to act in a spirit of mutual trust and co-operation ran through every interaction. The outcome was as clean as it gets: zero compensation events, out-turn cost exactly as tendered, and completion 13 days ahead of programme. 

The contract was prepared in collaboration with the contractor to allocate risks equitably. Such early contractor involvement can save a lot of time and effort and point the client in the right direction. In the end there were no compensation events, the out-turn cost was exactly as tendered and the project was completed 13 days early. 

- Stuart Peder, NEC Project Manager, City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council

Benefits of using NEC 

• NEC3 ECC Option A provided a simple, accessible contract framework for a part-time project manager on an emergency works scheme, with plain English terms and clear processes that required no specialist contract management support. 
• Collaborative risk allocation during contract preparation - an informal version of early contractor involvement - gave both parties clarity on risk ownership from the outset and contributed directly to zero compensation events across the full project. 
• The NEC ‘spirit of mutual trust and co-operation’ ensured continuous communication between client, contractor and the interfacing building works contractor above, enabling a technically demanding repair in a confined, constrained environment to complete early and on budget.