Contract to restore Palace of Westminster’s tallest tower opens for bids

The 99m-tall (325ft) Victoria Tower sits above Sovereign’s Gate at the south-west end of the Palace, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Tower was originally designated as a royal entrance and a repository for the records of Parliament. It’s currently home to the Parliamentary Archives although these are being moved elsewhere.

The tower, completed in 1860, hasn’t undergone significant repairs since the early 1990s and the building fabric has deteriorated.

The new £95 million (US$120.5 million) contract requires repairs to the external envelope of the tower via a full-height scaffold.

The notice for the six-year project, starting in 2025, announces the intention to appoint a contractor under an NEC4 ECC Option B contract (with secondary clauses and amendments) to deliver temporary works, and subsequent conservation and repair work to the Victoria Tower.

The contracting authority will maintain design responsibility for all the fabric-related design throughout the project. The RIBA Stage 4 design for the scaffold and associated temporary works will be developed by the contractor who will assume overall design responsibility for these packages including piling.

The Parliamentary Commercial Directorate uses an e-tendering portal (hosted by Atamis) to manage its procurement processes.