Award

Ask AI about this notice

Summarise, research or assess it with AI

View Markdown

Share this notice

Send this contract to a colleague

Interim Highways Services - Birmingham

Birmingham City Council

This public procurement record has 4 releases in its history.

Award

21 Sep 2026 at 16:20

UK7 - Contract Details Notice
AwardUpdate

03 Sep 2026 at 07:28

UK6 - Contract Award Notice
Award

21 Jul 2026 at 09:44

UK6 - Contract Award Notice
Award

17 Jul 2026 at 16:48

UK5 - Transparency Notice
Summary of the contracting process

Birmingham City Council procured interim highways maintenance and associated operational services across the Birmingham highways network. The requirement covers the continued operation and maintenance of public roads, including highway maintenance works and responses to faults, with the purpose of maintaining critical public services, public safety and service continuity while a longer-term highways solution is developed. The work is delivered in Birmingham for the Council. It follows the existing interim services arrangement previously delivered by Kier and transferred to the Council from Birmingham Highways Limited. The procurement is categorised as works and includes highway maintenance work (CPV 45233139). The requirement is therefore relevant to contractors with experience maintaining urban highway networks and delivering operational road services for public-sector clients.

This procurement is complete: Birmingham City Council made a direct award and selected Kier Transportation Limited and Kier Construction Limited. The award date was 21 July 2026 and the contract was signed on 31 July 2026. The contract runs from 1 August 2026 to 31 July 2028, with an option to extend to 30 April 2029, subject to funding availability and satisfactory performance. Its value is £120,000,000 excluding VAT and £144,000,000 including VAT. The procedure was a direct award under the Procurement Act 2023, justified by continuity and integration of existing services, technical incompatibility risks from changing supplier, and extreme unavoidable urgency following the withdrawal of Department for Transport support for the highways PFI project. One lot was awarded. Existing performance measures cover timely attendance, making safe and repairing Category 1 and urgent faults, and completing in-light repairs.

For a future competitor, this award shows that Birmingham City Council requires a large, integrated highways operator able to maintain an urban road network and provide responsive operational services without disrupting critical public provision. A credible supplier would need established capability in highway maintenance, fault response, urgent safety works, repairs and day-to-day network operations, supported by sufficient workforce, equipment, systems and management capacity. Experience of delivering comparable public-sector highways contracts would be important, particularly where performance is measured against service-level targets for attending, making safe and repairing urgent faults and completing in-light repairs on time. The requirement also favours suppliers able to demonstrate continuity planning, safe mobilisation, robust performance management and the ability to work within existing operational arrangements while a longer-term highways solution is developed.

How relevant is this notice?

Notice Information

Notice Title

Interim Highways Services - Birmingham

Notice Description

Kier Transportation Limited ("Kier") previously provided interim highways maintenance and associated operational services across the Birmingham highways network (the "Services") through an Interim Services Contract ("ISC") with Birmingham City Council's ("the Authority") subcontractor, Birmingham Highways Limited ("BHL"). The ISC novated from BHL to the Authority on 31 July 2026. The ISC was originally procured in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. Following the Department for Transport's recent decision to withdraw its support for the continued funding of the Authority's highways PFI project, the Authority will procure an alternative long-term solution to replace this project. To enable the procurement of this alternative solution, the Authority requires the continued provision of the Services on an interim basis and therefore proposes to enter into a variation agreement to extend the ISC, such that it will expire on 31 July 2028 (or on 30 April 2029 if the Authority exercises an option to extend the ISC set out in the variation agreement). The variation agreement will therefore ensure the continued uninterrupted delivery of critical public services and the continued safety of the public in accordance with the Authority's statutory duties.

Procurement Information

The Authority has determined that the variation agreement constitutes a direct award under the Procurement Act 2023 (the "Act"). The Authority is relying on the following the direct award justifications set out in Schedule 5 of the Act for the purposes of the award of this variation agreement: 1. Continuity and integration of existing services The Services to be provided under the variation agreement are a continuation of the Services currently delivered by Kier under the ISC. The direct award is intended to ensure continuity of service in respect of the operation and maintenance of the Birmingham highway network, which is a critical public service. The Authority has determined that a change of supplier and immediate replacement of Kier as the incumber supplier would give rise to incompatibility, and such incompatibility would result in disproportionate technical difficulties in the operation and maintenance of the Service which would give rise to a material risk to service continuity. 2. Urgency and interim nature of the arrangement The need for the variation agreement to ensure the continuation of the Services currently delivered by Kier has arisen as a result of circumstances outside of the Authority's control, resulting from the Department of Transport's decision to withdraw its support for the continued funding for the Authority's highways PFI project. The Authority considers that the direct award was strictly necessary for reasons of extreme and unavoidable urgency to ensure continuity of a critical public service while it undertakes the steps required to develop and procure a longer-term solution and the continued safety of the public in accordance with the Authority's statutory duties. The Authority has determined that it would not be possible to run a competitive procurement process to procure a supplier which could ensure such continuity of service in the timeframes available. The variation agreement with Kier is therefore intended to operate as a temporary measure pending the completion of a procurement process for a replacement solution to the Authority's highways PFI project. The Authority will shortly provide further information concerning the procurement of the replacement solution and the opportunities this will present to the market.

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-06ce46
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/089319-2026
Current Stage
Award
All Stages
Award

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
UK7 - Contract Details Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Works
Procurement Method
Direct
Procurement Method Details
Direct award
Tender Suitability
Not specified
Awardee Scale
Large

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

45 - Construction work

CPV Codes

45233139 - Highway maintenance work

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
Not specified
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
£120,000,000 £100M-£1B
Contracts Value
£120,000,000 £100M-£1B

Notice Dates

Publication Date
21 Sep 20262 weeks ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
Not specified
Award Date
21 Jul 20262 months ago
Contract Period
1 Aug 2026 - 31 Jul 2028 2-3 years
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Complete
Lots Status
Complete
Awards Status
Active
Contracts Status
Active

Buyer & Supplier

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
Birmingham City Council
Contact Name
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Email
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Phone
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →

Buyer Location

Locality
BIRMINGHAM
Postcode
B1 1BB
Postcode Area
Birmingham
Country
England
Major Region (ITL 1)
TLG West Midlands (England)
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLG3 West Midlands
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLG31 Birmingham
Delivery Location
Not specified
Local Authority
Birmingham
Electoral Ward
Ladywood
Westminster Constituency
Birmingham Ladywood

Supplier Information

Number of Suppliers
2
Supplier Names

Kier Highways Limited

Kier Construction

Further Information

Notice Documents

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

View full OCDS Record for this contracting process

JSON Markdown

The Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) is a framework designed to increase transparency and access to public procurement data in the public sector. It is widely used by governments and organisations worldwide to report on procurement processes and contracts.

Loading OCDS record...