Hampshire Gen5 Consult Framework: procurement and design notes for engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on New Civil Engineer
30 Second Briefing
Hampshire County Council has launched its Gen5 Consult – Transport, Highways & Infrastructure Consultancy Framework, establishing a pre-approved panel of suppliers under standardised NEC-based contract terms for road, bridge and drainage projects. The framework is expected to cover multi-year design and advisory commissions for highways maintenance, junction upgrades and active travel schemes across the county’s 5,500km road network. For consultants and contractors, early inclusion on Gen5 streamlines procurement for feasibility, detailed design and construction support, particularly for repeat geotechnical and pavement engineering work.
Technical Brief
- Framework uses NEC-based consultancy contracts, standardising risk allocation, payment mechanisms and change control.
- Pre-approved supplier list enables direct call-offs, bypassing OJEU-scale tendering for many mid-value commissions.
- Gen5 Consult is structured for multi-year call-off appointments, supporting continuity of design teams and data.
- Centralised framework governance by Hampshire County Council should harmonise technical standards across multiple highway authorities.
- Early consultant appointment under Gen5 allows geotechnical and pavement investigations to be programmed ahead of funding gates.
- Repeated use of common NEC options will simplify compensation event assessment and reduce dispute risk.
- For contractors, alignment with Gen5 Consult eases integration with parallel construction frameworks and design-and-build packages.
Our Take
Hampshire County Council also features in the £5.4bn Southern Construction Framework 6 supplier briefings, signalling that Gen5 Consult will likely sit alongside, rather than replace, larger regional delivery frameworks for schemes above the £1m mark.
Across our 866-item infrastructure corpus, county-level frameworks in the United Kingdom like Gen5 Consult tend to be used to standardise processes and pricing for repeat highways and transport commissions, which can shorten procurement lead times for smaller or specialist packages.
With New Civil Engineer already hosting webinars on BIM, common data environments and digital handover, consultants appointed to the Gen5 Consult – Transport, Highways & Infrastructure Consultancy Framework can expect stronger requirements around data standards and asset information deliverables than in earlier framework generations.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
