The UK Highways Agency has awarded the Area 9 Asset Support Contract (ASC) to EM Highway Services Ltd (EM), a wholly-owned subsidiary of infrastructure and business services firm Mouchel.

The contract will see EM operate, maintain and improve the the West Midlands road network.

"I am delighted that EM has been awarded the Area 9 Asset Support Contract."

EM managing director Dave Wright said: "I am delighted that EM has been awarded the Area 9 Asset Support Contract.

"Having recently mobilised our first ASC contract in Area 3, I am confident we can make Area 9 ASC, along with Area 3 ASC, the leading examples of how a successful contract of this type should perform."

Area 9 includes the Highways Agency’s network in central England, and covers vital roads mostly in Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire and Shropshire, including parts of Gloucestershire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire.

It also includes the seven metropolitan boroughs of Wolverhampton, Walsall, Sandwell, Dudley, Solihull, Coventry and the City of Birmingham.

Roads covered under the contract also include stretches of the M50, M5, M6, M42, M40, A5, A38, A46, A49, A38(M), M54 and M69.

EM’s new ASC, worth up to £160m annually, will begin on 1 July and will run until July 2019, with option for extending until 2022.

EM was awarded the Area 13 Managing Agent Contractor contract in 2010.