New contracts for road maintenance

We’ve reviewed how we maintain our roads and the one previous highways contract has now been split into four separate ones.

This means local specialist companies could tender for work in their specific field.

All four contracts aim to deliver social value, building on our commitment to carbon reduction and protecting the environment.

We also want to use local skills, talent and supply chain partners and give people the opportunity to work in the sector.

The largest of these is a £3.5m annual contract for resurfacing and other infrastructure works.

We’ve signed this four-year contract with the Mendip-based John Wainwright and Company.

In addition to this, we’ve also awarded contracts to:

• North Somerset Environment Company (NSEC) for reactive maintenance, including gullies, potholes, gritting, drainage, signage, road markings and out-of-hours emergencies. This contract value is £2.3m a year.
• Eurovia for our surface dressing programme. The contract value is £1.1m a year.
• Highways Dynamic Purchasing Systems to deliver civil engineering, structural work and specialist road surface treatments. This allows us to contract work to local companies who have signed up to take part in the system enhancing skills, learning and employment in the area. The value of this is £1.8m a year.

The contracts will start from April.