Tender Advertisement #1582233

Purpose:
The purpose of this project is to define a clear strategy for the Austroads Bridge Task force for the next five years.

Scope:
This project will develop a clear strategy that will focus the research program on what is important to Austroads and save money through more efficient project development. It will also enable and support discrete bids of projects as they work toward a greater goal.
This strategy will set direction and establish clear priorities and guide focus toward what matters most. It must respond to the major challenges of our time, including:
• An ageing asset base with limited capacity, increasingly expected to carry loads beyond its original design.
• Rising traffic management requirements to ensure worker safety, which are making bridge inspections more complex and costly.
• The impracticality of renewing all assets nearing end-of-life simultaneously.
• The need for environmentally sustainable construction practices to ensure assets can be built and renewed for future generations.

Deliverables:
This project will produce the following final deliverables:
• Internal report
• Webinar
• Project data with populated metadata spreadsheet.
It is expected there will be interim deliverables including but not limited to the following:
• Literature review: both for issues and challenges and similar strategies
• Consultation report: Bridges Task Force members, other Task Forces, industry and academia.
• Strategy template with chapter headings and overview of chapter contents
Strategy document.
The intended end users of the final internal report will be Austroads transport member agencies.

Also included as part of this tender are the following documents:
• Master Services Agreement outlining our Terms and Conditions. Please note that our Terms and Conditions are not negotiable.

All submissions that are research project based must adhere to the Austroads style requirements and the Australian Government Style Manual

Summary of Austroads Publication Requirements for Research Reports:
Consultants engaged to deliver research reports for Austroads are required to use a standard report template designed to ensure clarity, consistency, and accessibility across all published outputs. While the full template will be provided upon contract commencement, the following outlines the key requirements tenderers should be aware of:

General Formatting and Style
• Reports must follow the Australian Government Style Manual, particularly in relation to:
o Inclusive and accessible language
o Grammar, punctuation, and capitalisation (e.g. sentence case for most headings)
o Referencing and attribution
• Use pre-defined Austroads styles for all headings, body text, tables, figures, and captions. Manual formatting (e.g. changing fonts or colours directly) is not permitted.
• The Table of Contents must be auto-generated and kept updated.
• The report should be:
o Logically structured: Each section must contribute to the report's purpose.
o Consistent: No conflicting information or contradictions.
o Thorough: All aspects of the agreed scope must be fully addressed and justified.
Content Development Guidelines
• The Summary and Section 1 (Introduction) are mandatory for all reports.
• Reports must include appropriate referencing for external sources, data, and studies.
• Any copyrighted material used must have documented permission and be properly acknowledged.
• A qualified editor must review the report before submission to ensure correct grammar, spelling, and readability.
Figures and Tables
• All figures and tables must:
o Be sequentially numbered
o Include a clear caption inserted using the Microsoft Word Insert Caption tool
• Images and diagrams must be clear, relevant, and referred to in the text.
Technical Details
• Specific instructions are included for each section within the template (e.g. expected content, structure, and formatting).
• Reports must avoid "style corruption" often caused by copying and pasting formatted text—authors must verify styles remain consistent with Austroads' format.
• Reports should be reviewed to ensure there is no duplication, ambiguity, or omission of scope elements.

All submissions are to be submitted as a PDF at a maximum size of 10MB.

All submissions are to include a completed Tender Proposal Coversheet.

The naming convention for submissions is: [your Company name] – [Project No.] – [any internal reference numbers].