Milestone wins former Kier highways contract

Milestone Infrastructure has landed a Suffolk highways contract worth up to £1bn.

Suffolk County Council named the contractor, which was Skanska UK’s infrastructure services division until its acquisition by M Group Services, on the 20-year deal.

Kier formerly held the local authority’s highways contract, but its performance was criticised by opposition councillors last year.

Work delivered under the contract includes road and pavement maintenance, hedge-trimming, construction of new road schemes, and gritting.

A Suffolk Council spokesperson said that it extensively evaluated submissions from six bidders, with three of those invited to submit final tenders, before awarding the work to Milestone.

The council added that it worked with leading industry analysts to design the contract, which had an increased focus on social value.

Suffolk County Council member for highways Paul West said that Milestone demonstrated that it was an organisation that can “provide excellent services and value for our residents, while sharing our ambition and ideas to innovate in improving delivery of services, communicating more effectively with customers and sharing our commitment to reducing carbon use”.

The contract, which is worth between £800m and £1bn, begins in October.

Last year, opposition party councillors called for road maintenance to be brought in-house after airing a series of complaints about Kier over what they claimed was the quoting of “unaffordable” prices, including £10,000 for speed bumps.

But West rejected the call at the time, noting that the local authority would be burdened with far more upfront costs if it carried out the work through its own staff.