Birmingham City Council has today announced Amey as the preferred bidder for its long-awaited £2.7bn highways private finance initiative (PFI) contract.

The 25-year contract will give Amey responsibility for improving and maintaining Birmingham’s highways infrastructure – including 2,500 KM of road network, nearly 100,000 street lights, as well as over 850 highway structures and bridges across the city.

There will be a significant investment in the first 5 years to remove the backlog of work and increase standards, with higher expenditure for a further 20 years to maintain the city’s highway infrastructure at this improved standard. 

The contract will create more than 300 jobs in the city, with a further 300 staff likely to transfer from Birmingham City Council to work on the project with Amey following financial close.

Cllr Mike Whitby, leader of Birmingham City Council, said: ‘The City Council is leading the way with this pathfinder project that will provide a significant capital investment in our roads. 

‘Our next steps will be to work with Amey to finalise the contract details. After the contract is signed, we will continue to work closely together to draw up detailed implementation plans, with the intention of commencing work in April 2010.’

Amey beat off competition from Birmingham Street Services, comprising of Vinci, Ringway (part of the Vinci Group) and Highways consultant WSP. Birmingham will receive a £608M PFI credit from the Government

Birmingham will be the first Metropolitan authority to implement a highways PFI scheme of this scope and scale. Portsmouth City Council implemented the first highways PFI in 2005.