Britain’s biggest highways contractors are bracing themselves to compete for seven regional contracts as National Highways resets its approach to strategic roads upkeep.

An invitation to tender for spots on the long-awited £8 billion Maintenance and Response 2 framework will go out next month paving the way for a major overhaul of how England’s 4,500-mile strategic road network is maintained, says Construction Enquirer.

The reset will see the current 10 maintenance contracts replaced as they expire from July 2028. Firms presently holding areas include Amey, Colas, Costain, Kier and Ringway.

Unlike the existing arrangements, just one contractor will be appointed to each of seven regional lots.

According to the Government’s Find a Tender service, the M&R2 framework ‘may consist of seven location based lots and, following the procurement exercise, a single supplier may be appointed to deliver the services in each location. Each successful supplier may also be appointed to an overarching framework agreement, to provide resilience across the network in the event of supplier failure.’

The contracts cover routine and reactive maintenance, incident response, winter service, roadside technology and asset renewals including road markings, lighting, signs, barriers and fencing.

The framework will run from January 2028 to July 2037 and is one of the biggest highways maintenance procurements ever launched in England.

Contractors bidding for multiple regions will be asked to rank their preferred lots, allowing National Highways to allocate work using a combination of tender scores and bidder preferences rather than simply awarding every top-scoring lot to the same firm.

National Highways has built inflation and contingency into the overall framework value, meaning it exceeds the combined value of the seven regional contracts.

Applications close in October with contract awards expected to be made by November 2027.

(Picture: National Highways)