EM Highway Services Ltd (EM), a wholly owned subsidiary of international infrastructure and business services group Mouchel, has been awarded the prestigious Area 9 Asset Support Contract (ASC) by the Highways Agency. The appointment will see EM operate, maintain and improve the strategic road network in the West Midlands.

Area 9 comprises the Highways Agency's network in central England. It covers major roads in much of Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire and Shropshire, as well as parts of Gloucestershire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire, and includes the seven metropolitan boroughs of Wolverhampton, Walsall, Sandwell, Dudley, Solihull, Coventry and the City of Birmingham. The roads covered by the contract are sections of the M50, M5, M6, M42, M40, A5, A38, A46, A49, A38(M), M54 and M69.


The new ASC will commence on 1 July 2014 and will run until July 2019 with extensions possible until 2022. The contract is worth up to £160m per annum.

Dave Wright, EM Managing Director, said: "I am delighted that EM has been awarded the Area 9 Asset Support Contract – the second ASC for the company.

"We continue to successfully deliver our portfolio of MAC contracts to a high standard and, 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."

(CD)