A-one+ won a five-year asset support contract for the region in June 2016, along with Area 12 in Yorkshire & Humberside. The combined value of the two contracts is between £140m and £165m.
Chris Sheppard, 56, joins A-one+ from CH2M, one of the three joint venture partners of the consortium; the other two are Costain and Colas.
He was previously project director for CH2M’s HS2 work and ran the firm’s winning bid to be HS2 delivery partner.
Mr Sheppard is new to the highway sector. He began his career as a surveyor in open cast coal mining. He was later commercial director for Thames Water for 10 years and project director for Docklands Light Railway operator Serco during the London Olympics before moving to CH2M in 2013.
“The roads sector was a big attraction because there is new realisation by government of the importance of well-maintained highways to underpin economic development,” he said. “Alongside that Highways England is large, important client so will be interesting to work with.”
He added: “Roads have become so much busier and we, as a maintenance contractor, need to be innovative in finding ways of keeping the roads open and our workforce and the driving safe.”
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