Amey has been selected as the preferred bidder to deliver Birmingham’s 25 year Highways PFI contract. The 2.7bn deal will see the company repairing and modernising:

• 2,500km of highway
• 96,000 street lights
• 1,000 traffic signal
• 850 bridges and tunnels

The company will also be responsible for any emergency activities such as winter gritting.

With public complaints about the poor state of the city’s roads increasing and a lack of cash resulting in a huge repairs backlog, most of the maintenance work under the contract (£300m) will take place over the next 5 years.

There are, though, some ‘red lines’ that the contractor cannot cross. Most noticeably, that the number of highway trees at the end of the contract must be no less than at the start and no trees can be removed without councillors’ agreement.