Atkins wins ?350 million contract

Atkins wins £350 million Oxfordshire County Council Contract

WS Atkins plc (Atkins), Europe's largest design and engineering consultancy, has been selected as the Highways Maintenance, Design and Construction provider for Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) in a ten year deal worth £350m.

Keith Clarke, chief executive said, "Managing major highways contracts for the public sector requires technical expertise, expert project management and the ability to work as seamless partners within complex organisations. The award of this contract from Oxfordshire County Council clearly demonstrates our ability to do this."

Atkins' highways & transportation business has been extremely successful over the last 12 months, winning £1.1 billion of work including a five year contract with Somerset County Council (from 1 April 2010), a three year extension by Gloucestershire County Council (starts 1 April 2011) and a share of the M25 Operations and Maintenance contract (commenced 13 September 2009).

The ten year contract with Oxfordshire County Council, with a possible ten year extension, involves:

·; Policy and strategy advice and support

·; Design services

·; Network management

·; Construction of improvement schemes

·; Cyclic, reactive and planned maintenance

A two phase mobilisation programme is being planned ensure that highway maintenance, emergency response and construction related activity is available from 1 April 2010. Network management, design services and policy and strategy support will be fully operational by 1 July.

Ends

Notes to editors:

Atkins (www.atkinsglobal.com) is one of the world's leading engineering and design consultancies. We have the depth and breadth of technical expertise to respond both to the complex challenges of major infrastructure projects, and the urgent transition to a low-carbon economy. Whether it's the concept for a new skyscraper, the upgrade of a rail network, the modelling of a flood defence system or the improvement of a management process, we plan, design and enable solutions.

Recent projects include:

·; Major infrastructure works, such as the design and programme management of the civil works for the Dubai Metro red and green lines;

·; High profile transport planning and urban design - our innovative scheme to deliver a diagonal crossing at London's Oxford Circus has helped tackle the problem of pedestrian crowding;

·; Key rail projects - providing architectural and engineering design services on London's Crossrail, Europe's biggest civil engineering project, and designing stations, tunnelling and track systems on Gautrain, South Africa's first high speed line;

·; Multidisciplinary building design - North Wood Primary School in Darlington is an exemplar project which raises standards for environmental design and community engagement;

·; Vital water and environmental projects - as part of a joint venture, Atkins is providing technical assistance to the Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Reform Programme in Nigeria, which will benefit up to three million people.

Atkins was named Consultancy of the Year in the CIBSE Low Carbon Performance Awards 2010; received the first ever certification of the Carbon Trust Standard awarded to an engineering consultancy in the construction sector; named in The Times Top 50 Companies Where Women Want to Work 2009; and The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers 2009. The company was also construction and civil engineering sector winner for the fifth consecutive year in the Target National Graduate Recruitment Awards 2010.

Atkins is the official engineering design services provider for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.