Northern Water intends to deliver the major works for the project under a collaborative design, build, operate and maintain (DBOM) contract model. Under the collaborative DBOM model, Northern Water will enter into two primary contracts with a single consortium to build and operate the plant and pipeline including a contract to design and construct, and a contract to operate and maintain. Proposals for both contracts will be tendered concurrently and submitted as a joint proposal.

The teams delivering the two primary contracts will be required to work together to ensure that the balance between construction costs, and operations and maintenance costs are considered together to achieve the optimal overall cost over the term of the project.

The diagram below illustrates examples of local content that may be required under each of the contracts.

Organisations who met the selection criteria of the ROI have been invited to participate in the formal EOI process. Access to both the EOI document and the dataroom was granted exclusively to those who met the criteria of the ROI and executed an NDA. This allowed access to sensitive project details available only to restricted to authorised personnel.

EOI briefings were held at the end of February 2024, and the opportunity to provide a submission has now closed. Responses are currently being assessed on their ability to deliver the project in alignment with the project's requirements.

Key criteria used in the evaluation process includes:

• consortium arrangements ​
• previous experience on similar project​/s
• capability and capacity to deliver the contract requirements ​​
• commercial/legal terms
• Industry Participation Plan Statement of Intent response (seeking to optimise the use of local businesses wherever possible).