The five-year maintenance and upkeep contract covering the West Midlands is estimated to be worth up to £160m a year.

As with other ASC deals it will include design and con­struc­tion of works up to £4m and will come into operation from January 2014.

ASC 9 will cover routes within the counties of Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Derbyshire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Leicestershire, and Shropshire and the Metropolitan Boroughs of Walsall, Sandwell and Dudley and the City Of Birmingham.