FM Conway - Going the Extra Mile

Creating Route 8 of the Cycle Superhighway – Wandsworth to Westminster – gave us the opportunity to get close to TfL and show them what we were capable of.

who were unwilling to engage anyone who was not what they would call a ‘Tier One’ contractor. ‘Tier One’ basically refers to the size of a company, but it’s not a precise term – whether or not you’re ‘Tier One’ is largely a matter of how a company is perceived in the market. It was clear from what had happened that some people in TfL hadn’t realised how much we’d grown and developed in recent years. This was hardly surprising; our growth had been incredibly rapid. But it did give us a problem: we needed to change the image TfL had of us. We had made a start with the Cycle Superhighway, but we had to build on this if we wanted to win that contract. Part of our new strategy would be to stay close to TfL and show them what we were capable of. The second issue was a ‘hard’ issue: we couldn’t bid for the LoHAC tender on our own. The terms of the tender stated that bidding companies had to have a minimum turnover of £250 million. We needed a partner. So, we formed a joint venture company with

152