National Highways is gearing up to launch seven regional contracts to maintain England’s 4,500 mile strategic road network.

An invitation to tender for places on the £8bn Maintenance and Response 2 (M&R2) framework will go out in August.

National Highways says the strategic road network (SRN) is “one of the biggest and most important pieces of infrastructure in the country”, comprises thousands of miles of motorways and major A roads.

It says the M&R2 framework may consist of seven location based lots and, following the procurement exercise, a single supplier may be appointed to deliver the services in each location. 

The contracts cover routine and urgent maintenance, incident response, severe weather operations and winter maintenance, roadside technology maintenance and renewal works including such as road markings, lighting, road signs, road restraint systems and fencing.

Covering almost 10 year – running from 6 January 2028 to 1 July 2037 – the total contract is valued at £8.76bn (£9.55bn including VAT).

The tender notice is likely to be published on 24 August with the deadline in October. Awards  are expected to be made in November 2027.

The framework covers seven areas:

South-west - £671m
South-east - £1.09bn
East - £977m
Middlands, West - £799m
Midlands, East - £726m
North-west - £953m
Yorkshire and North- £902m
(Values are all excluding VAT)