Costain / Colas team in lead for £310m HA contract

The A1 Plus group (Costain / Colas / Halcrow) is in pole position to win a highways maintenance deal covering the Highways Agency’s (HA) Midlands and East Anglian regions worth up to £310m.

The news on the Area 7 managing agent/contractor project means that the present incumbent on the scheme, AM Scott ( a joint venture between the subsequently bought-out Alfred McAlpine and Scott Wilson) has been toppled from its perch.

Carillion bought the Alfred McAlpine half of AM Scott and pitched again for Area 7, but under the Carillion banner and in tandem with consultant WSP.

Meanwhile, Skanska teamed up with McAlpine’s former partner to bid for the project.

The other bidders overtaken by A1 Plus were Accord/Mouchel and lone raider Amey.

A1 Plus is expected to begin work on site on the new contract in July 2009.

A source said: “The re-arrangement of pieces on the board didn’t work out for Skanska and Carillion, but this would have been a fiercely contested job. There’s so much at stake – it’s high value and provides several years of guaranteed work.”

The HA estimates that the new contract, which expires in June 2014, is worth up to £62m annually.

Area 7 covers maintenance and improvement works plus capital schemes worth up to £500,000 on trunk roads and motorways in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire and Oxfordshire, plus Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire.