Patrick Rodgers and Craig Winter will jointly head-up the specialism, splitting responsibilities between commercial and operations.

Rodgers started his career in 2009 as a quantity surveyor working at Barhale before moving on to work for Galliford Try while attending Salford University. He has since worked for a number of main contractors including Balfour Beatty and Costain as a senior commercial consultant on smart motorway projects and other civil engineering schemes. He joined Kilkern in 2019.

Winter began his career with Capita on highway maintenance in 2002. He moved to Galliford Try in 2008 where he progressed from a site engineer to senior site agent working mainly on coastal defence and infrastructure schemes.

He joins Kilkern to lead operations having had stints with SJ Building Contractors and BIAD Civils Ltd as contracts manager covering civils and FRC works.

Patrick Curran, director at Kilkern, said: “Our people strategy is very clear. We want to bring in the best talent and we want to recognise the abilities and dedication of our existing team.

“With this appointment we are doing both and we are very excited at the qualities Patrick and Craig will be bringing to the joint leadership of our civil engineering business.

“They both have an excellent track record in precisely the types of civils that Kilkern specialises in and highly-complementary skill sets.

“Kilkern has grown substantially over the last few years. It’s actively developing and recruiting the best talent across all three of its business streams including regional civil engineering, nationally operated vacuum excavator hire and specialist labour supply as it continues to build its reputation as one of the UK’s leading infrastructure specialists.”