Warwickshire County Council has awarded its highways maintenance contract along with partners at Coventry City Council and Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council to Balfour Beatty Living Places.
The seven-year contract, will run from May 2026 to May 2033 with an option to extend by a further six years and was awarded after a competitive selection process to achieve the best value service on offer in the market.
Under the arrangement, Balfour Beatty Living Places will work alongside Warwickshire County, Coventry City and Solihull Metropolitan Borough Councils to maintain and improve highway networks, including roads, footways, structures and associated assets such as gulleys and culverts.
The Councils’ combined approach is designed to drive better value for money, improve network condition, enhance road safety and reduce disruption to road users.
The new contract will deliver added value with investment in our physical depots and also in technology. A hub will be established that will give real time information, analysing data and helping to prioritise work, for example, where potholes and road defects need immediate treatment.
Cllr Jennifer Warren, Warwickshire's portfolio holder for transport and planning, said:
“This contract has been awarded following rigorous scrutiny of the bids received and Balfour Beatty have demonstrated that they offer a high quality service offering the very best value for money.
“The new contract will changes to our existing arrangements, based on feedback that we have received from the public, and we have also managed to keep the overall cost of the contract highly competitive. In fact, this increased value for money means that the same amount of work that we carried out last year could be delivered for £1m less in the new contract, unlocking the potential to increase the amount we do for the same spend.
“The contract also brings innovations such as an improved control hub for better co-ordination and performance management of the work we do, the flexibility to explore new ideas and an expectation of continuous improvement.
“Key to the contract will be continuing the service during freezing winter weather when nearly half of the road network is treated, sometimes multiple times per night. Building on that, we'll be providing innovations like grit bin sensors to ensure that we always have the supplies that we need.
“We’re also set up perfectly to focus on prevention rather than cure. For example, getting exceptional value for works that stop potholes forming in the first place rather than chasing them once it’s too late.
“Building on the partnership with colleagues in other local authorities and sharing the contract with them, we are confident that it represents the very best value we can get from our investment, one that will bring the best maintenance of our roads for years to come.”
Philip Hoare, Balfour Beatty Group Chief Executive, said:
“This award reflects the confidence and trust our customers place in Balfour Beatty. Over the last fifteen years, we have worked collaboratively with our local authority partners to build a strategic infrastructure partnership that combines effective asset management and improving services to deliver strong, measurable outcomes.
“Long term partnerships such as this are critical to the delivery of essential infrastructure, enabling sustained investment in people and services so that we can provide better outcomes for communities.”