FOI release

Full Business Cases for A47 Blofield and Tuddenham upgrade schemes

This request was refused in part, so we didn't provide some of the information the requester asked for. This may include information where we can neither confirm nor deny that we hold it.

Case reference EIR2024/00920

Received 28 August 2024

Published 2 October 2024

Request

Please can you supply the documents comprising the Full Business Cases for A47 Blofield to North Burlingham scheme and the A47 North Tuddenham to Easton scheme. The e-mail of 20 August 2024 to me from Major Projects - Regional Investment Programme - East, stated that the business cases are complete.

Response

Information provided

Please find attached two PDF's titled:

· A47 Blofield Full Business Case - v4 _Redacted

· A47 North Tuddenham to Easton Business_Case V6 14-08-24 Redacted

Personal information has been withheld under Regulation 13 of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

Information withheld

Commercial information within these documents has been withheld under exception in Regulation 12(5)(e) - Commercial or industrial information of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

This is because it relates to the contracts that we are currently negotiating. Releasing the information at this stage in the scheme would negatively impact the commercial settlement of final costs between National Highways and the schemes' contractors and undermine National Highways' leverage in future negotiations to obtain the best deal for the public purse. This would result in the increased cost of the schemes to the government and the taxpayer.

In applying this exemption, we have had to balance the public interest in withholding the information against the public interest in disclosure. The key public interest factors for and against disclosure are attached.

Advice and Assistance

The A47 Blofield to North Burlingham scheme started in August 2023 and works commenced on 19 August 2024. We expect the road to be open to the public in October 2026.

A47 North Tuddenham to Easton scheme started in August 2024. We expect the road to be open to the public in April 2027.

We currently expect the contracts to be agreed within the next two months and you are welcome to submit a new request for the unredacted FBCs at a later date.

Documents

• A47 Blofield Full Business Case - v4_Redacted.pdf (10.7 MB)
• A47 North Tuddenham to Easton Business_Case V6 14-08-24_Redacted.pdf (8.5 MB)
• EIR2024 00920 - Public Interest Test.pdf (59.0 KB)

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