Lower Thames Crossing: Low Carbon Hydrogen Supply

National Highways is the government company charged with operating, maintaining and improving England's strategic road networks. The Lower Thames Crossing (LTC) is a National Highways project that will build a new road connecting Kent, Thurrock and Essex through a tunnel beneath the River Thames. It will provide much-needed new road capacity across the river east of London, alleviating congestion on the Dartford Crossing. Three Delivery Partners have been appointed to deliver the three main components of the project - Kent Roads, Tunnels & Approaches and Roads North.

National Highways has designated LTC a pathfinder project that will explore carbon neutral construction. Low Carbon Hydrogen is a key element in LTC's strategy to deliver its carbon reduction targets and a key objective of this procurement is to enable a significant reduction in the use of diesel on the programme by enabling the use of hydrogen powered plant, machinery and generators. The procurement covers the supply, delivery, storage on site and dispensing of Low Carbon Hydrogen (and any equipment necessary to enable the supply) over 5 years, for use by the LTC appointed Delivery Partners to fuel their construction plant and equipment. Making hydrogen easily available could displace a significant amount of the diesel forecast to be used during construction. The Low Carbon Hydrogen supply contract has an estimated contract commencement date in mid 2025 with supply of hydrogen commencing in 2028. This will be an 8 year contract (consisting of a period of preparation and readiness to supply hydrogen and then 5 years of hydrogen supply) with the option to extend by up to two additional years (1+1) in the event this is required. The option to extend is included to mitigate the impact of delays to the LTC programme. Whilst National Highways' estimated total value of the contract is £80,000,000 + VAT, the actual outturn value of the contract will depend upon a number of factors, including the potential for an increase in hydrogen demand during the life of the contract, and to account for the potential impact of any delay to the LTC programme, and is expected to range from between £37,500,000 and £80,000,000.

The Low Carbon Hydrogen contract will be enabled for use by Lower Thames Crossing's Delivery Partners and by National Highways' contractors. The contract will be procured under the Competitive Dialogue Procedure (Public Contracts Regulations 2015).

National Highways will be holding a launch event on Thursday 5 December from 2.30 - 3.30 pm. The purpose of the event is to provide an overview of the SQ process and the documents provided as part of this procurement. Attendance is optional and is not required in order to participate in the process.This will be a virtual event via Teams. If you would like to attend please contact us via the messaging system on the eSourcing portal or email [email protected] with the email addresses of those attending