Ringway Jacobs Secures Full Five-Year Extension to Essex County Council Integrated Highway Partnership

Ringway Jacobs, the leading integrated highways service provider to UK local authorities, secures the maximum five-year extension to its current 10-year highway network management contract with Essex County Council (ECC).

The extension, following the most intensively examined, independently benchmarked and scrutinised contract review process in the County Council’s history, will run from 1 April 2022 until 31 March 2027. This decision demonstrates the continued benefit the local authority sees in the unique value that Ringway Jacobs brings to the council, and Essex, through its integrated, asset management-led highways solutions.

This extension enables Ringway Jacobs to continue its work to protect and improve the Essex highway network, deliver authentic place-making solutions for the county and, through its industry-leading shareholders, Eurovia UK and Jacobs, draw on world-class innovation and technical and professional support.

Mike O’Neill, Ringway Jacobs Managing Director says: “I’d like to thank the council for continuing to place its faith in us. Today’s great news validates our integrated partnership model: local authorities like Essex County Council see that longer-term, closely-knit integrated partnerships play a key role in maximising value for local highways, people and place, as did Cheshire East Council in their recent re-procurement with Ringway Jacobs. They recognise the merit in investing for longer-term savings, ensuring efficiencies and improvements are delivered for local communities.

“Our integrated approach delivers productive outcomes on multiple levels, far beyond the routine maintenance work we do as part of Essex Highways. In the face of increasing budget pressures on local authorities, our work has enabled ECC to protect essential revenue streams from central government, and attracted significant inward capital investment grants for infrastructure such as the first tranche of the Housing Infrastructure Fund, for which Essex was granted more than half of the £600 million national funding. This was further demonstrated in 2017 when Essex Highways (the Ringway Jacobs and Essex County Council’s strategic partnership) was named the National Transport Local Authority of the Year.

“With the certainty of the contract term, we can now continue to bring technological, material and digital innovations to solve the county’s biggest challenges and provide a customer-centric service.”

Andrew Cook, Essex County Council’s Director of Highways and Transportation comments: “I am very pleased to be able to confirm our current successful integrated partnership with Ringway Jacobs for a further five years. The partnership has developed significantly since its inception - it is producing outcomes that really meet the long-term needs of one of the largest counties in the country in a fast-changing transportation world, while delivering the best value for money for citizens.

“With over 5000 miles of highway, 4000 miles of footway and over a quarter of a million streetlights to contend with, it is not a simple job; however by continuing to work closely together and tapping into the unique resources of Ringway Jacobs’ shareholder organisations, we can bring operational and strategic innovation, efficiency and professionalism to the management of Essex’s highways assets and network, benefitting the people of Essex in the years to come.”