Amey has won a £325m contract from Highways England to provide highway maintenance and response services for Area 10 Highways over a period of 15 years.

Area 10 road network serves the North West of England, connecting the cities of Manchester and Liverpool, and other nearby areas.

As per the contract, Amey will deliver all routine and cyclic maintenance on the trunk road and motorway network around Cheshire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, and South Lancashire from April.

Additional scope of the contract includes incident response, defect rectification and severe weather treatment.

The contract requires the firm to take responsibility for traffic management during incidents and the operation of the five main depots in the region, as well as seven winter-only depots.

Amey chief executive Andy Milner said: “Working together, listening and learning from our clients and customers, we have reshaped our Highways business to put collaboration and service delivery at the heart of our approach.

“This approach is the basis of developing the Area 10 collaborative model with Highways England and the supply chain to deliver services for the communities of the North West.”

“We recognise that how we maintain our roads and respond to incidents are extremely important issues for drivers.”

To provide the service, including winter maintenance, Amey will hire 45 new staff from the North West to join the present team across a variety of roles.

Highways England operations executive director Nick Harris said: “We recognise that how we maintain our roads and respond to incidents are extremely important issues for drivers.

“By working more closely with our supply chain, colleagues who carry out these activities, we will be able to work more effectively, identify innovative ways of working and provide the best possible quality of service to our customers.”

Amey already manages Highways England Area 7, which help 4.5 million people across the East Midlands experience reliable journeys every day on its 787km network.

The company is also offering maintenance and improvement schemes for approximately 658km of strategic road networks in Areas 13 and 14.