A consortium led by Higgins Construction has been awarded a $79m motorway maintenance contract by the New Zealand (NZ) Transport Agency.

Comprising Beca, Waiotahi, Combined Roads and Traffic (CRTS) and Avalon Industrial, the consortium secured the seven-year network operations contract for the road maintenance services across the Rotorua and Eastern Bay sub-region of the Bay of Plenty area.

Effective from 1 July, the contract is said to be performance-based, intensively focusing on the delivery of quality results for the motorway network and all road users.

"The agreement is designed to deliver improved road maintenance efficiency and reduced costs."

Highways manager for the Bay of Plenty area Brett Gliddon said that the agreement is designed to deliver improved road maintenance efficiency and reduced costs.

"This is a new operating framework for the transport agency. In the past, there have been a number of consultants and physical works contracts for delivering maintenance works on the network," Gliddon said.

"With this new business approach, there is one contract for a larger area that includes the Rotorua, Whakatane, Opotiki and Kawerau districts."

The NZ Transport Agency has scheduled the announcement of the next contract for the western Bay of Plenty area in November.