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Road and Rail Noise measuring tool

THE DEPARTMENT FOR TRANSPORT

This public procurement record has 1 release in its history.

Award

22 Sep 2026 at 09:44

UK5 - Transparency Notice
Summary of the contracting process

The Department for Transport is procuring specialist technical services to complete new road and rail noise calculation methods for use in England. The work will consolidate existing research into a coherent four-part method, produce an open-source reference implementation, complete integration and validation, and support initial beta testing. The final output will be a single authoritative, freely accessible method covering both road and rail noise, replacing the 1988 Calculation of Road Traffic Noise and 1995 Calculation of Railway Noise approaches. The requirement includes technical research and related consultancy services (CPV 73000000). Delivery is across the United Kingdom, with adoption outside England a matter for the relevant devolved administrations. The buying organisation is the Department for Transport, a central government department.

The procurement is complete and was made by direct award. AECOM was selected for the single lot; the award notice is dated 22 September 2026. The award value is £300,000 excluding VAT and £360,000 including VAT. The contract period is 7 October 2026 to 7 March 2029, with signature scheduled by 5 October 2026. The direct award was justified by the limited pool of specialist road and rail noise experts, technical reasons and exclusive intellectual property considerations. The requirement includes point-to-point implementation, ISO 17534 testing, resolving evidence and coding gaps, beta-phase user support, and preparation of the final methods. The lot was identified as suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises, although the selected supplier is AECOM.

This requirement indicates demand for suppliers able to combine advanced environmental noise modelling with practical software delivery and technical consultancy. A credible future competitor would need expertise in road and railway noise calculation, source and propagation modelling, evidence review, product design and open-source implementation. Relevant capability includes testing against ISO 17534, benchmarking calculation outputs, rewriting or integrating specialist code, validating methods and resolving technical issues during live user testing. Experience supporting policy teams, technical user groups and regulatory or standards-facing work would be important, as would the ability to turn extensive research into a clear, authoritative method and maintain its associated digital architecture. The work also favours organisations able to assemble a consortium covering research, software engineering, operational testing and subject-matter support.

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Notice Information

Notice Title

Road and Rail Noise measuring tool

Notice Description

The Department for Transport (DfT) seeks to procure specialist technical expertise to finalise new road and rail noise calculation methods. As noise policy and assessment are devolved matters, adoption of the method outside England would be a decision for the relevant Devolved Administrations. The current methods, Calculation of Road Traffic Noise (CRTN, 1988) and Calculation of Railway Noise (CRN, 1995), no longer reflect modern vehicle technologies, infrastructure design or the latest evidence on environmental noise. New evidence-based methods have now been developed through joint research commissioned by the DfT, the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), National Highways (NH) and the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) and require completion before they can be used. This procurement will deliver the work needed to bring the new method to a fully usable and publishable standard. This includes consolidating the research outputs into a coherent four-part calculation method, producing an open-source reference implementation, completing outstanding integration and validation tasks, and supporting the Authority (DfT) during an initial beta testing period. The outcome will be a new single, authoritative document describing the calculation method for both road and rail noise that will supersede CRTN (1988) and CRN (1995).

Procurement Information

The DfT is gearing up its resource to produced, publish, and manage the new methods of Road and Rail Noise Calculation but there is currently the equivalence of just over two full time equivalent policy professionals working on its delivery, within the DfT. Establishing a consortium of experts is the only reliable resource capable of delivering the technical knowledge, product design, operational testing and user 'trouble shooting' during a testing phase to fill the specialist knowledge/capability gaps which challenge the next stage of delivery of new methods of Road and Rail Noise Calculation. Furthermore, given the specialist expertise required to develop new methods for Road and Rail Noise Calculation, the UK offers only a limited pool of professionals. A consortium approach provides the most effective means of engaging and leveraging this expertise. Government funding has already enabled Defra, National Highways, and the Rail Safety Standards Board to develop initial methods documents with support from external expert suppliers. To deliver Point-to-point implementation, ISO testing, and user group support and clarifications during live 'beta phase' implementation alongside subsequent addressing and fixing of issues that emerge requires technical and expertise. The beta development is critically dependent on the user group support and clarifications during a 1- to 2-year testing phase, as users of new methods will be relying on immediate support to resolve issues or provide workarounds. Neither DfT and the other government departments or arm's length bodies (ALBs) possess the technical and sector knowledge to support all aspects of this methods delivery (nor would it be feasible to resource this internally). This STA proposal will enable the DfT to: 1. retain the intellectual property rights (IPR) of work completed to date (four extensive reports with total sunken costs of over >PS250,000), future work, and final methods documents. 2. identify and resolve outstanding evidence/resource gaps including re-writing of existing code used for the HARMONOISE method, resolving some issues around the source and propagation interface (such as retro-diffraction), testing it in line with ISO 17534 (est. 30 test cases to benchmark against). 3. provide detailed technical and subject matter expertise and support during a period of live 'beta testing' based on the initial methods and associated digital architecture (i.e. coding). 4. publish final methods in an open access (freely accessible) format. 5. retain commercial insight to help develop a departmental framework to ensure the long-standing management of the methods and associated regulatory framework.

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-07770b
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/089432-2026
Current Stage
Award
All Stages
Award

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
UK5 - Transparency Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Services
Procurement Method
Direct
Procurement Method Details
Direct award
Tender Suitability
SME
Awardee Scale
Large

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

73 - Research and development services and related consultancy services

CPV Codes

73000000 - Research and development services and related consultancy services

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
Not specified
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
£300,000 £100K-£500K
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
22 Sep 20262 weeks ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
Not specified
Award Date
Not specified
Contract Period
7 Oct 2026 - 7 Mar 2029 2-3 years
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Complete
Lots Status
Complete
Awards Status
Pending
Contracts Status
Not Specified

Buyer & Supplier

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
THE DEPARTMENT FOR TRANSPORT
Contact Name
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Email
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Phone
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →

Buyer Location

Locality
LONDON
Postcode
SW1P 4DR
Postcode Area
South West London
Country
England
Major Region (ITL 1)
TLI London
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLI3 Inner London - West
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLI35 Westminster and City of London
Delivery Location
Not specified
Local Authority
Westminster
Electoral Ward
Vincent Square
Westminster Constituency
Cities of London and Westminster

Supplier Information

Number of Suppliers
1
Supplier Name

AECOM

Further Information

Notice Documents

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

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The Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) is a framework designed to increase transparency and access to public procurement data in the public sector. It is widely used by governments and organisations worldwide to report on procurement processes and contracts.

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