The Victorian Government will streamline a $2.2 billion road construction blitz as part of the biggest suburban road upgrade program in Victoria’s history, boosting our economy and creating hundreds of jobs.

Recognising the important role the construction industry will play in driving Victoria’s economy, the Government will accelerate the massive Suburban Roads Upgrade, using an innovative procurement approach to give local construction companies more opportunities to win contracts.

As part of the Government’s economic response to coronavirus, consultation has occurred with smaller construction companies to understand how to best support their involvement in the Big Build program.

The approach is modelled on the Level Crossing Removal Project – a collaborative model that delivers benefits for both local communities and industry, while providing certainty for the construction sector. It will support Tier 2, 3 and 4 companies access this work, creating more jobs and capacity in the construction sector.

Construction companies will be pre-qualified following a tender process for work according to the scale and complexity of jobs – with work awarded based on past performance and value-for-money.

Twelve priority projects in Melbourne’s North and South East, worth $2.2 billion will be progressively awarded to pre-qualified companies under this approach.

The tender process for the Northern and South Eastern Public-Private Partnership packages of road upgrade will be terminated and incorporated into the new program approach.

A Registration of Interest to qualify for the panels will be released next week with work on the first projects expected to start before the end of the year.