MULTI- MILLION pound highway tenders will be awarded to a contractor tasked with upgrading and maintaining the borough’s roads.

Wokingham Borough Council has invited tenders for the provision of a £241million highways and transportation project, which will run for seven years with the option to extend to 10 years.

The first contract will be for professional services where the council needs specialist expertise and to support peaks of project workload.

The second contract will include highway maintenance and construction including street lighting, structures, bridges and drainage services plus delivery of major infrastructure projects.

A successful contractor will also be required to provide access to online information on the ongoing activities.

Councillor Keith Baker, executive member for highways and transport, said: “Wokingham Borough Council is at the forefront of providing evolutionary highways and transport services and this new partnership will enhance our ability to seek innovative solutions to problems that we know residents have concerns about.

The council currently has five contracts for highway and transportation service delivery that include professional services, maintenance and construction services, structures and bridges, street lighting and drainage maintenance, all of which come to an end on March 31 2019.

Following the completion of the currents services, the five contracts will be cut to two to deliver better cost effective services.

Cllr Baker, added: “We are confident that, after extensive consultation with our residents, local business owners and councillors, our new contracts and partnerships will enable us to meet our objectives and exceed expectations.”

Contractors have until February 14 2018 to declare an interest and from these, between three and five will be invited to make full bids for each contract.

The contracts will be awarded to the successful contractors in mid-October, allowing time for the contractors to set up an appropriate organisation and the formation of the partnership before the new contracts go live on the April 1 2019.