Somerset County Council extends highways contract with Skanska

Somerset County Council has extended its highways maintenance contract with Skanska for another year.

The contract will now run until March 2016 with the potential for another year’s extension.

Skanska employs 160 staff on the contract and maintains over 6,000km of highway. Work undertaken by Skanska includes structural and routine maintenance, winter and emergency services, maintenance design and fleet maintenance.

Somerset County Council was one of the first local authorities in the United Kingdom to outsource highways maintenance. This contract is the longest-running highways maintenance partnership in the UK, starting in 1996. The current contract started in 2010, and this is the third term.

Skanska’s managing director for infrastructure services, Deirdre Murphy, said: “We are committed to working with Somerset County Council to provide a responsive and high-quality highways maintenance service to the county.”

Councillor Harvey Siggs, Somerset County Council’s cabinet member with responsibility for highways, said: “We believe our current contract is highly competitive and this extension is good value and good news for Somerset road users. At a time when we are looking at all of our services to make significant savings, it is good to know that we have such a competitive contract delivering a good service to our residents, visitors and businesses.”