Balfour Beatty lands £245m tri-council highways deal

Balfour Beatty Living Places – the contractor's local authority highways division – has won a £245m seven year highways maintenance contract for Coventry City Council, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council and Warwickshire County Council. The three councils have procured the new collaborative road maintenance contract in search of cost reductions through procurement and delivery efficiencies.

Balfour Beatty has provided highways services in Warwickshire for the past five years. The new award recognises the value derived from the excellent service and greatly improved IT systems, according to the company's group chief executive Leo Quinn: “We build long-term relationships with local authorities that add real value to communities. This contract award is a real endorsement of the excellent service we have provided across Warwickshire since 2011 and gives us the opportunity to build upon our successes.”

Balfour Beatty will deliver a variety of services across Warwickshire, Solihull and Coventry, a network of 5000km of roads and over 55,000 street lights.

Warwickshire County Council’s portfolio holder for transport and planning, councillor Peter Butlin, said: “The highways maintenance contract supplies one of our principal services and its performance is very important to residents and businesses. By approving a highways contract as a three-way partnership, we are able to provide improved value for money to the taxpayer as well as better service resilience and flexibility. As neighbours, it makes perfect logic for Warwickshire, Coventry and Solihull to link up and provide a more efficient service through cooperative working.”