Herring Bridge, Great Yarmouth, UK

Norfolk County Council has used NEC to design, build and initially operate the multi-award-winning Herring Bridge in Great Yarmouth. The 50 m clear span twin-bascule structure provides the town with a new dual-two-lane road crossing of the River Yare, linking the A47 trunk road in the west to the port, enterprise zone and offshore energy hub in the east. The new bridge has eased traffic congestion, shortened journey times and improved journey reliability, supporting wider plans for economic growth. It opens and closes in just 90 seconds.

The Council awarded the work to a Bam Farrans joint venture under an NEC4 Engineering and Construction Contract (ECC) in January 2019, using a mix of Option A (priced contract with activity schedule, Option C (target contract with activity schedule) and Option E (cost reimbursable contract). Options A and E were used for the design stage, Option C for construction, and Option A for initial operation and maintenance.

The Council was the NEC project manager, WSP was the client’s designer and H&H and Roughan & O’Donovan were the contractor’s designers. The two 770 t, 45 x 24 m bridge bascules were manufactured by Victor Buyck in Belgium and delivered by barges. The project included marine works, creating piled and reinforced-earth approach embankments, constructing two underpasses, upgrading 2.8 km of local roads and building a five-arm roundabout next to the A47.

Work started on site in January 2021 and, despite 14 months of programme delays due to Covid-19, a vole burrow and an exploding World War II bomb, the bridge opened to traffic in February 2024, 14 months ahead of schedule. The construction stage will be completed on programme in March 2025 and the initial operation and maintenance stage will run until January 2027.

Collaborative approach 

David Allfrey, the Council’s assistant director of infrastructure delivery, says the NEC requirement to ‘act in a spirit of mutual trust and co-operation’ led a collaborative approach by the project team. ‘The parties acted as stated in the contract and with a spirit of mutual trust and co-operation to resolve issues, resulting in a satisfactory outcome.’  

He says the effects of significant impacts such as Covid-19 and the bomb blast could have derailed the project. ‘Through the collaborative nature of NEC, the project team jointly identified and implemented solutions to these problems that mitigated costs and programme effects, including re-sequencing the works to allow the bridge to open 14 months ahead of the remaining construction completion.’ 

Allfrey says the effective operation of the NEC processes were critical to success. ‘The contractual provisions relating to early warnings and early warning meetings, and the provisions surrounding the treatment of compensation events, all helped to ensure that issues affecting the programme and budget were identified and resolved as quickly and fairly as possible’. 

He says the transparency of cost provided by ECC Option C during construction was also a great benefit to the Council. ‘The contract provisions for defined costs, forecasting and compensation event assessments supported correct decision making, protecting the client’s budget as much a reasonably possible.’ 

Allfrey says while other events occurred on the project which were not the client’s risk or liability, complete transparency of costs with appropriate programme management and compensation events assessments mitigated the risk of disputes. ‘This resulted in early assessments of the contractor’s pain/gain share, mitigating the risk of the client over-paying and having to recover such over-payments due to amendments to the contractor’s share provisions.’

Multiple awards

The bridge has already won numerous industry awards, including the Road Bridge Project of the Year Award in the 2024 NCE Bridges Awards, the Major Project Award and Special Merit Award in the 2024 Highways Awards, and Highly Commended for the Transport Project of the Year in the 2024 British Construction Industry Awards.

Benefits of using NEC

• NEC flexibility enabled different payment options to be adopted for the design, construction and operation stages.
• NEC requirement to ‘act in a spirit of mutual trust and co-operation’ led to a collaborative approach by the project team, which was essential for such a complex project.
• NEC early warnings, early warning meetings and compensation events ensured that issues affecting the programme and budget were identified and resolved as quickly and fairly as possible.
• ECC Option C transparency of cost supported correct decision making, protecting the client’s budget and minimising the risk of disputes.