The international project management and consultancy company AMEC has won a five-year contract with the North London Waste Authority (NLWA) to advise on infrastructure for North London’s 1.7 million residents.

The new contract requires the engineering consultancy to advise NLWA on the bidding procedure for its two upcoming 25-35 year procurement contracts. AMEC expects the contracts to cost around £2-3 billion over their lifetime, the first contract is for waste services, which include collection, sorting, recycling and processing of waste. The other is for fuel use, which will ensure that any non-recyclable materials will have some of their costs recouped by processing into solid recovered fuel. NLWA expects that the new infrastructure will cost £500-600 million.

AMEC will provide technical analysis of the bids NLWA is currently receiving to evaluate the value of each bid. Once the final bidder has been selected in December 2012, AMEC will develop the contractor’s plan ready for the operational start in 2016.

“The need to treat waste as a resource means it is really important to identify the best technical solutions to maximise recycling and composting, recover energy and reduce waste sent to landfill,” explains Francis Crozier, director of AMEC’s waste management group. “We are very pleased to be working with the North London Waste Authority to help deliver this crucial project.

AMEC has already been working with the NLWA over the last five years on site investigations, engineering advice and studies of waste composition and waste flow in the seven North London boroughs.