Kier Highways, Amey, and a joint venture (JV) between CH2M and Costain have secured four new-style contracts from Highways England worth over £300 million.

Two maintenance and response contracts worth up to £262m have been awarded to Kier Highways and CH2M Costain JV. The deals are set to begin on 01 April 2017.

The contracts involve delivering routine highway maintenance services, repairs to defects, emergency incident response and severe weather services on the Highways England road network. Kier Highways will operate in Cumbria, while CH2M Costain JV will operate in the North East.

In addition, Highways England is managing both routine maintenance and the delivery of capital renewal and improvement schemes, marking 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 deals began operating in the East Midland’s region earlier this year in July.

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Elsewhere, Highways England has awarded two new five-year design services contracts with an expected value of over £38m.

Amey OW Limited will carry out the deals in both the Cumbria and North Lancashire, and the North East areas. Features include preparing technical designs and undertaking supporting work for capital projects from an initial scheme feasibility phase through to the as-built phase. The contracts will run from 01 April 2017.

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.

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."

(LM/MH)