Contractor wins work from four-strong Highways Agency framework

Contractor Carillion has won a £104.9 million contract to upgrade the M6 motorway in Birmingham.

The contract will see Carillion turn the highway into a managed motorway, where technology is used to actively control traffic flow, including imposing variable speed limits and hard shoulder running.

It will install the technology between Junctions 5 and 8.

Carillion was chosen from the four contractors on the Highways Agency’s Managed Motorways framework, beating Balfour Beatty, a BAM Nuttall / Morgan Est joint venture, and a Costain/Serco joint venture to the job.

Advance works for the contract will start at the end of January 2012 and the main works by June 2012, with contract completion scheduled for 2014-15.

Carillion chief executive, Richard Howson, said: “We are delighted to have been chosen to work with the Highways Agency as its delivery partner for this latest managed motorway contract, which further reinforces Carillion’s position as one of the leading suppliers for the Agency’s managed motorway programme.”