Amalgamated Construction has come out with top honours as the only firm to gain a place across all three Network Rail maintenance regions.

But John Murphy & Sons, Birse and Carillion also did well with a place on two of the three regions.

The Building and Civils Delivery Partnership framework agreement, which will run for three years with an option to extend for a further two years, covers minor works across the network, although some programmed jobs are valued up to £1m.

Firms will design improvements when applicable and carry out maintenance to a whole host of structures from bridges and viaducts to tunnels and embankments and cuttings.

Much of the planned maintenance is now published to give advanced notice of works to the industry.