Winners named for £4.5bn smart motorway alliance

Highways England has selected its three contractor partners to deliver the future smart motorway programme worth up to £4.5bn.Costain this morning confirmed it had won the northern region, with a BAM Nuttall/Morgan Sindall joint venture understood to have secured the Midlands and BalfoCostainur Beatty the southern area.The 10-year framework will see the SMP Alliance deliver a key element of the Government’s second Road Investment Strategy, with a greater emphasis on technology and increased efficiency.It is an important win for Morgan Sindall, which had failed to secure a place on Highways England’s other major delivery frameworks and risked dropping out of highways.It is also a major win for Costain, which has seen its share price fall sharply in the last few months.It is understood Costain will now deliver the A66 to Scotch Corner project worth around £1bn and the M62 Huddersfield to Rochdale smart motorway upgrade.