This is the first of a number of Asset Delivery contracts in the South West which sees Highways England changing its way of working and delivering the Government’s record £15 billion investment to improve and maintain the country’s motorways and major A roads.
Highways England will now take direct responsibility for managing both routine maintenance and the delivery of capital renewal and improvement schemes.
The new arrangements will bring a number of key decision-making functions in-house and see Highways England taking greater control over the future of the network, ultimately ensuring the smooth functioning of its South West major roads.
The award of this and future contracts allows Highways England to directly engage with our supply chain, to drive down cost and waste, whilst providing the best possible value for money for tax payers, and service for our customers.
The contract will run for up to five years and focusses on design – it will see Kier taking design briefs and turning them into well-defined packages of work.
Duties will include preparing technical designs and undertaking supporting work for capital renewal projects and improvements to produce a solution that is ready for construction, and to design briefs to repair major roads and get them back running as normal after incidents will also form part of the work.
David Poole, Executive Director for commercial and procurement at Highways England, said:
We are delighted that Kier Highways Limited will be part of our new Asset Delivery supply chain community across the South West.
This contract not only builds on the new way of working already taking place in the East Midlands and North of England but also demonstrates our ongoing commitment to increasing Highways England’s capability and control over the whole road network.
Andrew Page-Dove, Regional Director for the South West, said:
Kier Highways currently operates a number of key support contracts and we are confident that this award will build upon our existing successful relationship and deliver a high quality service throughout the South West. We look forward to working with them.
Future awards will include a range of suppliers being appointed in April to the new framework for delivering construction works and a contract will be awarded in March for the maintenance and response contract, both of which will help to deliver the designs provided by Kier Highways.
Highways England will now begin working with Kier Highways to ensure that they are ready to begin delivering key design services from 1 July 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.
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