// Regulated by RICS // NEC4 Option C // RIS3 2026 to 2031 // UK-wide //
Commercial support for highways programmes under NEC4 target cost
Chartered quantity surveying for Tier 1 contractors, specialist subcontractors and highway authorities delivering strategic road network and local highway programmes.
One of six sectors. Where the directors learned the trade.
What Peak Commercial does on highways programmes
Peak Commercial provides chartered quantity surveying and NEC4 target cost commercial support on strategic road network and local highway programmes, for Tier 1 contractors, their supply chains and highway authorities. Highways is where the firm's directors learned the trade. Chris Turner, Director, has seventeen years in commercial management with particular depth in NEC target cost frameworks. James Fallon, Director, has twenty years of experience with Tier 1 and Tier 2 contractors and acts as party representative in adjudication and mediation. Between them they have run the commercial function on major road schemes from early contractor involvement through to final account.
Funding for the strategic road network runs in five-year cycles. The third Road Investment Strategy, RIS3, published by the Department for Transport in March 2026, covers 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2031 and follows a one-year interim settlement of £4.842 billion for 2025 to 2026. National Highways delivers that programme through frameworks let on NEC4, and the schemes under them are overwhelmingly Option C target cost. Local highway authorities run their own capital programmes on the same contract family, with smaller schemes, tighter budgets and the same record standard.
On a target cost road scheme the commercial position is decided early. Often in the first hundred days. Target set, activity schedule agreed, Early Warning Register populated, and the early warning process either starts working or does not. We embed with the contractor's team at that point, or take over the account later when the target has been overrun and nobody can say why.
What this includes
NEC4 Option C target cost administration on National Highways and local authority frameworks
Target cost build-up, activity schedule preparation and pre-contract negotiation
Early warning and risk reduction meeting discipline
Compensation event notification, quotation and assessment, including delay and disruption
Defined Cost records, Disallowed Cost control and pain and gain forecasting
Subcontract package strategy, procurement and NEC4 subcontract administration
Interim applications, payment notices and final account settlement
Party representation in adjudication and mediation where a highways account is in dispute
01
Water
AMP8 frameworks under NEC4 Option C and Option E, administered to survive the water company's commercial assurance and the regulator behind it. The firm is building a commercial team of more than fifteen on one major AMP8 framework.
04
Highways
Strategic road network and local authority programmes under NEC4 target cost, through the RIS3 road period that began in April 2026. Where the directors learned the trade.
05
Nuclear
Civils, enabling and infrastructure packages on the nuclear estate, with Defined Cost records built to audit grade from mobilisation. Capability tier; the disciplines transfer.
// Regulated by RICS // NEC4 Option C // RIS3 2026 to 2031 // UK-wide //
What a target cost road scheme demands
Road schemes carry the risks that make target cost contracts difficult: ground conditions, utilities, traffic management and the programme constraints that come with working on a live network. Each of those is a compensation event when the contract says it is and a contractor's cost when the notice was late or the record is thin. Between the two lie a matter of weeks and a handful of documents, and on a scheme with a thin margin it can be the difference between a share of the saving and a share of the overrun.
Two habits protect the position. First, the Early Warning Register is treated as a live commercial document and not as a formality; a risk that reaches the register in time can be priced, planned around or removed, and one that does not becomes Disallowed Cost. Second, the Defined Cost record is built for the reader who will challenge it later. Plant, people and subcontract cost are allocated to the activity they belong to as the work happens, so that when the scheme closes the account already agrees with the programme.
Highways also produces disputes, because the schemes are large, the margins are thin and the contract is unforgiving of late notice. Where an account has reached that point we act as the party's representative in adjudication and mediation, and we can support enforcement through the Technology and Construction Court. The same record discipline carries to water frameworks, where the directors' delivery record also sits.
Who we act for
Tier 1 contractors on National Highways regional delivery, scheme delivery and maintenance frameworks. Tier 2 and specialist subcontractors, including earthworks, structures, drainage, surfacing and traffic management, working under NEC4 subcontracts. Local highway authorities and their delivery partners. We have worked on both sides of the main contract and subcontract relationship and price risk accordingly.
Talk to a quantity surveyor
Talk to a chartered specialist about your highways programme. Send us the contract, the target and the key correspondence. We will tell you where you stand, what it is worth pursuing, and what it is not.
Frequently Asked Questions