• Birmingham Highways contract welcomes 360 new employees to Kier under TUPE
• Mobilisation took place in six weeks, with the final two weeks under the Government social distancing
• The contract will run until 29 June 2021 and covers more than 2,500km of road, 5,000km of footways, 846 structure, three tunnels 9,400 street lighting columns, 76,000 highways trees and the city’s traffic control system

Kier Highways has successfully mobilised its new 15-month interim highways services contract for Birmingham Highways Ltd (BHL).

Approximately 360 employees transferred across to Kier from Amey Highways under TUPE. The contract was mobilised in six weeks with the final two weeks working to Government advice of social distancing and self-isolation.

In order to successfully mobilise the contract and welcome the new Kier employees during this unprecedented time, the Kier Highways team had to get creative. They held a series of online induction and training sessions at various times to ensure all new employees could attend, as well as hosting ‘digital drop ins’ to allow the new employees to ‘meet’ their colleagues.

The contract will run until 29 June 2021 and includes the city’s traffic operations, planned and reactive maintenance, inspections and winter servicing. It covers more than 2,500km of road and 5,000km of footways, as well as 846 structures, three tunnels, 94,000 street lighting columns, 76,000 highway trees and the city’s traffic control system.

Joe Incutti, acting group managing director for Kier Highways said;

“We are delighted to welcome 360 new employees to Kier Highways, and I am extremely proud of the mobilisation team who have worked exceptionally hard under unprecedented circumstances to seamlessly transfer all employees and services in time for day one. I would also like to thank Amey Highways for their support during this process.

“We are delighted to be appointed to this contract, and to be working alongside Birmingham City Council and Birmingham Highways Ltd to maintain a safe and reliable network for our customers in Birmingham.”

Kier Highways manages 30,000km of the UK’s strategic and local authority road network, currently working with a wide range of local authorities in the country. It delivers highway services to 4.2m people and its routine reactive maintenance includes emptying gullies, surface treatment and repairing potholes.