Press release

Highways England awards new-style contracts worth over £300 million in Cumbria and North Lancashire, and the North East

Highways England has awarded four new style contracts worth over £300 million which will help improve journeys for road users in Cumbria and North Lancashire, and the North East of England.

Two maintenance and response contracts expected to be worth up to £262 million and running for up to 15 years have been awarded to Kier Highways Limited and CH2M Costain Joint Venture as part of Highways England’s new delivery arrangements.

The contracts, which will start on 1 April 2017, will see Kier Highways Limited operating in Cumbria and CH2M Costain Joint Venture operating in the North East, delivering routine highway maintenance services, repairs to defects, emergency incident response and severe weather services on the Highways England road network.

The Asset Delivery contracts will see Highways England directly managing both routine maintenance and the delivery of capital renewal and improvement schemes. This marks a change from previous way of working, bringing key functions in-house and taking greater control of the road network.

The first of these types of contracts began operation in the East Midland’s region in July this year.

In addition, two new five-year design services contracts, with an expected value of over £38 million, have today been awarded to Amey OW Limited for both the Cumbria and North Lancashire, and the North East areas.

Duties will include preparing technical designs and undertaking supporting work for capital projects from an initial scheme feasibility phase through to the as-built phase, and will also run from 1 April 2017.

David Poole, Executive Director for commercial and procurement at Highways England, said:

We are delighted to welcome Kier Highways Limited, CH2M Costain Joint Venture and Amey OW Limited to our Asset Delivery supply chain community in Cumbria and North Lancashire and the North East. The awarding of these four new contracts builds on the new way of working already taking place in the East Midlands and is a real change in the way we have previously operated the network. These contracts demonstrate our commitment to increasing capability and understanding within Highways England and bringing Highways England closer to our customers.

Collaboration with our supply chain is key to our new way of working and we are looking forward to establishing a successful, long-term relationship with the appointed contractors.

Further contracts will be awarded for specialist goods and services in the coming months and suppliers will be appointed to the new framework for delivering construction works in late January.

The Asset Delivery maintenance and response, and design services contracts will commence in these areas when the current Managing Agent Contracts with A-one+ in the North East and Kier in Cumbria and North Lancashire come to an end.

Highways England will be working with the successful contractors to ensure that they are mobilised and ready to begin delivering key services from 1 April 2017.

General enquiries

Members of the public should contact the Highways England customer contact centre on 0300 123 5000.

Media enquiries

Journalists should contact the Highways England press office on 0844 693 1448 and use the menu to speak to the most appropriate press officer.

Published 15 December 2016