The Midlands Highway Alliance (MHA) has awarded partners Aecom and Waterman a £30m professional services partnership (PSP) contract to provide multidisciplinary professional design services in the UK.

As part of the three-year deal, the two parties will support the 20 councils on highway projects across the Midlands.

Aecom teams from six offices across the region will be responsible for providing a range of services and will work in partnership with Waterman’s secondment services division, involving secondment of 70 professional and technical staff.

"Winning the new PSP contract will enable us to build on the success of the previous four years."

Work under the contract will begin immediately and covers major highway improvements, maintenance and road safety projects, town centre regeneration schemes and transport studies.

Aecom held the earlier four-year PSP contract, which has seen MHA member councils benefit from more than £2.7m in savings.

MHA chairman Phil Crossland said: "The previous partnership was seen as a great success, and this award will allow our member authorities to continue to benefit from having access to the resources and expertise of one of the largest consultancies in the world.

"Work is starting on developing the ambitious plans for improving the partnership that were outlined in Aecom’s tender, and I look forward to the relationship going from strength to strength."

Aecom and Waterman will work as part of an integrated team with MHA members to improve their in-house design capabilities.

In the UK, MHA creates opportunities for local councils to collaborate in order to reduce costs and generate efficiency improvements in the delivery of highway services.

Aecom network operations and traffic director Rory Poole said: "Winning the new PSP contract will enable us to build on the success of the previous four years, where the team delivered a range of successful projects and generated £2.7m in savings for councils in the Midlands.

"We look forward to working with the MHA to help members deliver schemes that will benefit communities across the region."

As part of the earlier PSP contract, Aecom delivered detailed design and site supervision for the A1139 Fletton Parkway project to improve capacity along the busy commuter route in Peterborough, as well as planning and design services for a new railway station in Ilkeston.