Colas Ltd has been appointed to deliver the seven-year Highways Delivery Partner contract for Cheshire West and Chester Council, with two possible extensions of four years each, taking the maximum term to fifteen years.
Commencing on 1 April 2023, Colas will be responsible for the maintenance of the 2,300km of public highways as well as structures including the historic Chester City Walls, traffic signals, street lighting, gulley cleansing, drainage, street furniture, road studs and markings, professional services and vehicle restraint systems.
The new Delivery Partner contract will take a highly collaborative approach, and the Colas team and Council team will be working closely together to deliver a quality service for the local communities. Colas will be supported on the contract by Waterman who will deliver the professional services, and Bouygues Energies & Services who will deliver the street lighting and traffic signals.
The local highways depots will receive improvements by Colas early in 2023, including upgrades to the welfare facilities for staff, new electric vehicle charging points, and in the main depot, a new local recycling facility will be established that will support the development of a circular economy as well as enabling specialist road recycling. The depot will be carbon neutral by 2025.
In addition to the depot improvements, drawing on experience from the National Highways Area 9 contract which began in July 2022, Colas will deliver a fleet solution that is 100 percent alternative fuel and Ultra Low Emission Vehicles.
Colas CEO, Faical Lahmamsi said: “We are delighted to have been awarded this seven-year contract by Cheshire West and Chester Council and are excited to be bringing our experience in delivering sustainable road solutions for them, and their communities.”
David Ogden, Executive Director responsible for Asset and Maintenance solutions at Colas added: “The entire team at Colas are thrilled to be working in a collaborative approach across the contract with Cheshire West and Chester Council, in particular with the creation of a new Social Value Steering Group that will see us work jointly with the Council and local stakeholders to create a strategy and address emerging challenges which will support local people and create opportunities for disadvantaged communities.”
The Council’s Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways and Strategic Transport, Councillor Karen Shore, said: “We are pleased to award our highways term maintenance contract to Colas Limited following a lengthy and detailed procurement process.
“Teams in our Transport and Highways directorate have been working hard to ensure the procurement process and the development of the overall contract for these key services was carried out thoroughly and effectively, taking into account factors that are influencing the market for these services at the current time.
“We would very much like to thank our current contractor, Ringway, for their hard work in Cheshire West and Chester since 2012, working alongside us to look after our highways assets and keep our residents and visitors safe.
“We are however looking forward to working with our new contractor Colas to deliver the best possible highways maintenance services for the borough.”
(Picture – Colas)
