Costain has picked up the northern region, with a BAM Nuttall/Morgan Sindall joint venture appointed for the Midlands and Balfour Beatty the southern area.

The 10-year framework will see the SMP Alliance deliver a key element of the Government’s second Road Investment Strategy, with a greater emphasis on technology and increased efficiency.

It is an important win for Morgan Sindall, which had failed to secure a place on Highways England’s other major delivery frameworks and risked dropping out of highways.

Highways England also announced today that Fluor had secured the smart motorway production management partner role to lead and coordinate the alliance partners.

Consultants WSP UK and Jacobs Engineering UK are design partners for the alliance from initial concept to closeout.

In the early summer of this year, the alliance will start with a two-week initiation phase.

During this phase of mobilisation of the alliance, the partners will come together to establish how they will best work together.

A Highways England spokesperson said: “Today’s announcement marks the start of a pioneering new approach to how Highways England does business.

“The framework will enable the industry to put greater emphasis on the standardised design, so where there are common elements across a programme, such as gantries and variable message signs, they can be produced and can be ordered ‘off the shelf’.

“By establishing this building block approach to road building, the intention is to transform productivity by increase efficiencies and decrease overall costs.”