{"id":888697,"date":"2026-01-29T23:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T05:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/29\/national-highways-chief-executive-announces-departure\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T23:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T05:12:14","slug":"national-highways-chief-executive-announces-departure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/29\/national-highways-chief-executive-announces-departure\/","title":{"rendered":"National Highways chief executive announces departure"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p data-start=\"69\" data-end=\"232\">National Highways chief executive Nick Harris has announced he is stepping down.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"234\" data-end=\"454\">He will remain in post during a short transition phase, though no fixed end date has been confirmed.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"234\" data-end=\"454\">The board will appoint an interim chief executive while recruitment for a permanent successor begins in the spring.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"456\" data-end=\"873\">In a statement today (29 January), Harris it was the \u201cright moment\u201d to hand over leadership of the government-owned company responsible for operating and maintaining England\u2019s motorways and major \u2018A\u2019 roads.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"456\" data-end=\"873\">He added: \u201cI am immensely proud of what we have achieved together over the last five years \u2013 delivering safer, greener, more reliable roads; strengthening our relationships with partners; and modernising the organisation for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"875\" data-end=\"1164\">Harris was appointed as chief executive in February 2021, having previously served as executive director of operations since 2016. His CV also includes senior roles in UK and international water utilities.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1166\" data-end=\"1415\">Under his leadership, National Highways <a href=\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/civils\/lower-thames-crossing-gets-green-light-25-03-2025\/\">secured development consent for the \u00a39bn Lower Thames Crossing<\/a> and launched a new Safety Strategy.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1166\" data-end=\"1415\">He also oversaw the organisation\u2019s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and advanced its digital transformation programme, National Highways said.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1417\" data-end=\"1612\">The organisation\u2019s chair Gareth Rhys Williams said Harris had guided National Highways \u201cthrough an important period of change and achievement\u201d and helped it prepare for new targets set out in the five-year <a href=\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/financial\/government-unveils-draft-for-25bn-ris3-27-08-2025\/\">Road Investment Strategy 3 (RIS3)<\/a>, which outlines priorities for \u00a325bn of spending.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p data-start=\"456\" data-end=\"873\">RIS3 is scheduled to begin on 1 April.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/peoplemoves\/national-highways-chief-executive-announces-departure-29-01-2026\/\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><br \/>\n Ben Vogel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>National Highways chief executive Nick Harris has announced he is stepping down. He will remain in post during a short transition phase, though no fixed end date has been confirmed. The board will appoint an interim chief executive while recruitment for a permanent successor begins in the spring. In a statement today (29 January), Harris<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":888698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28884,3574],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-888697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-highways","8":"category-national"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/888698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}