Ringway Hits the Road with £1.95bn Hertfordshire Highways Deal

The contract was first tendered in late 2023.

Start date and term: The contract begins on 1 October 2025 and runs for an initial seven-year period, ending in 2032. But there is scope for extensions — two further seven‑year periods, bringing the maximum term up to 21 years.
Annual value: It is understood to be worth at least £55 million per year over the initial seven years, although with extensions the total could reach the full £1.95bn.
Geographical & physical scope: Ringway will be responsible for more than 5,000 km of roads and pavements in Hertfordshire, along with street lighting and signal maintenance, surface water drainage, fixing potholes, seasonal tasks (gritting, grass cutting), emergency response, and related improvement schemes.

The contract is not just about keeping roads in decent shape. There are several additional features and commitments:

“Flexible, collaborative arrangement”: The deal emphasizes adaptability—Ringway must be able to adapt as the council’s priorities and funding change.
Active travel & infrastructure schemes: Beyond reactive maintenance, the work includes transport infrastructure to promote walking, cycling and wheeling (i.e. non‑motor travel), which aligns with wider sustainability goals.
Apprenticeships & local supply chain: The winning bid included plans for apprenticeship programmes (including for people who might face barriers to employment) and a strong local supply chain to help Hertfordshire‑based businesses.
Environmental targets / carbon neutrality: The contract builds on successes under the previous arrangement (e.g. trials of a robotic pothole‑preventer, electric gritter) and includes commitments to further reduce carbon emissions. Plans include increasing electric vehicles in the fleet, using more recyclable or recycled materials, trialling new fuels where possible, and scalable efforts toward achieving carbon‑neutral operations by 2030.

Some of the infrastructure scale involved:

Carriageways: Approximately 5,100 km of roads for which Ringway will be responsible.
Footways and cycleways: Around 5,500 km.
Street lights: The number of street lights to maintain is about 115,000 units.
Gullies (drains etc): Approximately 168,000 gullies across the network needing maintenance.

The tender process was competitive. Ringway beat other shortlisted bidders (notably Kier and Milestone) to win the contract.
Jacobs has been appointed as the county’s professional services supplier for highways in a related contract, replacing earlier providers.
Contract oversight includes defect‑management policies, public reporting and guidance (including inspection manuals, enquiry guidance, “assess & decide” strategies), to ensure not just reactive work but systematic inspection, prioritisation and quality control.

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