RIS3 and the £27bn roads budget: where the work is for civils contractors

RIS3 went live on 1 April 2026. The third Road Investment Strategy commits £27 billion over five years to maintain and upgrade 4,500 miles of motorways and major A-roads managed by National Highways. That’s the headline. Here’s what’s inside the number.

Where the money goes

The £27bn breaks down into three main spending areas:

Renewals: £8.44bn. This is the largest single pot, covering resurfacing, structural repairs, drainage replacement, bridge strengthening, technology upgrades, and safety barrier installation across the existing network. Renewals work is the bread and butter of highways subcontracting. It’s repeat, programme-driven work that runs continuously over the five-year period.

Enhancements: £3.85bn. These are the named upgrade projects: junction improvements, new carriageway sections, and major scheme completions. Thirty schemes are confirmed in the programme, with nine more in the pipeline for development.

Operations and maintenance: the remainder. Traffic officer patrols, winter gritting, incident response, routine inspections, vegetation management, and the day-to-day running of the network. Less relevant to civils subcontractors, though verge maintenance and drainage clearance packages do come through the supply chain.

The named schemes worth watching

Two projects dominate the enhancements budget:

A66 Northern Trans-Pennine upgrade. This converts the A66 between the M6 at Penrith and the A1(M) at Scotch Corner into a continuous dual carriageway. The route is 50 miles through some of the most challenging terrain in England: the North Pennines, with gradients, peat bogs, and exposed moorland. The earthworks scope alone is enormous. National Highways awarded the main contracts in 2024, and construction is underway on several sections.

For subcontractors, the A66 needs drainage installation (new culverts, attenuation ponds, carrier drains through peat), bulk earthworks (cuttings and embankments through variable glacial and peat deposits), and structural works (bridge abutments, retaining walls, reinforced earth). The work is concentrated in the North East, but the Tier 1 contractors running the project will draw from a wider catchment area because of the scale.

Lower Thames Crossing. The longest road tunnel in the UK, crossing the Thames east of Gravesend. The project has been through several rounds of planning and judicial review. If it proceeds on current timescale, the civil engineering packages (approach road earthworks, portal structures, cut-and-cover sections, and surface highway tie-ins) will be some of the largest individual contracts in the RIS3 programme. The working assumption in the supply chain is that LTC packages will start tendering in earnest during 2027.

The other 28 schemes

Beyond the headline projects, the remaining enhancement schemes include junction improvements on the M25, M1, M6, and A303. These are typically 12-24 month projects with civils packages in the £2-15 million range: earthworks for new slip roads, drainage diversion, kerbing, surfacing, VRS installation, and temporary works for traffic management.

The nine pipeline schemes are earlier stage. They’ve been confirmed for development but haven’t yet reached preferred route stage. If you’re thinking about positioning for RIS3 work in 2027-2028, these pipeline schemes are where the future opportunities sit. The National Highways pipeline page lists them with indicative timelines.

Renewals: the bigger opportunity for most firms

The enhancement schemes get the press coverage. The renewals budget is where most civils subcontractors will actually find work.

£8.44bn over five years translates to roughly £1.7bn per year in resurfacing, drainage, structures, and safety work. National Highways delivers this through its regional maintenance contracts, currently held by companies like Kier Highways, Amey, Ringway, and Connect Plus (the M25 operator).

These main contractors subcontract heavily. A typical renewals programme in a single National Highways region might include:

• Drainage rehabilitation: replacing 40-year-old carrier drains, installing new filter drains, rebuilding gullies, relining culverts. This is civils work: excavation, pipework, backfill, reinstatement, all under live traffic with narrow working windows.
• Earthworks: embankment stabilisation, cutting slope repairs, geotechnical remediation of failed highway slopes. Climate change is increasing the frequency of slope failures on the strategic network, and the RIS3 document specifically references increased funding for resilience works.
• Structures: bridge joint replacement, bearing replacement, parapet upgrades, deck waterproofing, and scour protection. Smaller civils firms won’t touch the main structural work, but the enabling earthworks, temporary access, and reinstatement are typical subcontract packages.
• Safety barriers: Vehicle Restraint Systems (VRS) installation and upgrades. The concrete central reservation barrier programme alone runs to hundreds of kilometres. The civils component is foundation preparation, concrete barrier base construction, and tie-in to existing infrastructure.
• Technology: installing and connecting new motorway technology (smart motorway sensors, CCTV columns, emergency refuge areas). Each installation needs a concrete foundation, ducting, and electrical connection, all civils packages.

How the work reaches you

National Highways does not procure directly from civils subcontractors. The work flows through layers:

Tier 1 main contractor (holds the Regional Delivery Partnership or maintenance contract) → Tier 2 specialist subcontractor (may hold a framework agreement with the Tier 1) → Tier 3 civils/earthworks subcontractor (your firm, typically).

To get into this chain, you need:

1. Accreditations. Constructionline Silver as a minimum. Many Tier 1 highways contractors also require Achilles BuildingConfidence or CHAS. CSCS cards for all operatives. NHSS (National Highways Sector Schemes) certification for specific work types: NHSS 12B for traffic management, NHSS 10 for drainage, NHSS 4 for safety barriers.
2. Supply chain registration. Each Tier 1 has its own supply chain portal. Kier uses Supply Chain Connect. Amey has its own system. You need to register, complete their PQQ, and get onto their approved list before you’ll be invited to tender. Registration is free but time-consuming. Do it before you need the work, not when a tender lands.
3. Track record in highways. This is the catch-22 for firms trying to enter the highways sector. Tier 1 contractors want subcontractors with demonstrable highways experience: working under traffic management, NHSS compliance, awareness of GD (General Design) standards. If you have no highways track record, your best route in is through smaller packages (under £100k) where the Tier 1 is more willing to take a chance on a new supplier, or through a JV with a firm that already has highways credentials.

The commercial reality of highways work

RIS3 is a real programme with real money. But highways subcontracting has specific commercial characteristics you should factor in:

Payment terms are long. The standard flow is: you do the work, you apply for payment monthly to the Tier 1, they apply to National Highways, and the money works its way back. Sixty-day payment terms from the Tier 1 are common, and 90 days is not unusual during the early months of a new contract when payment cycles are still being established. Your cash flow model needs to handle that.

Variations are hard to recover. National Highways runs a tight change control process. If ground conditions differ from the GI data, or if a programme delay pushes your work into winter, the route to recovering additional costs runs through the Tier 1, who then claims it from National Highways. This takes months. Price your risk at tender stage rather than relying on recovering it later.

Night work and weekend work are standard. Renewals work on live motorways happens during closures, typically 22:00 to 05:00 or full weekend closures. Your operatives need to be willing and available to work these hours. Factor night-shift premiums (typically 15-25% above day rates) into your tender pricing. Under-pricing the labour element on nights is one of the most common errors in highways tendering.

Health and safety standards are higher than most other sectors. Working on a live motorway carriageway is one of the highest-risk construction activities in the UK. National Highways sets minimum standards through the Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) Framework, and Tier 1 contractors add their own requirements on top. Expect more paperwork, more supervision, more PPE, and more pre-start briefings than on a typical commercial development site. This is justified: the consequences of getting it wrong are severe.

Positioning for the next five years

RIS3 runs to March 2031. The programme ramps up through 2026-2027 as detailed designs complete and contractors mobilise. If you’re not already in the highways supply chain, the window to get registered, accredited, and known to the Tier 1 contractors is now.

Three practical steps:

1. Register on the Tier 1 supply chain portals for contractors active in your region. You can find who holds which National Highways contract on the National Highways supplier page.
2. Get your NHSS certifications in order. If you do drainage work, you need NHSS 10. If you provide traffic management, NHSS 12B. These take time to obtain and audit.
3. Start small. A £50,000 drainage package on a slip road resurfacing project is not glamorous, but it gets you onto the Tier 1’s performance record. Deliver it well, and the next package is larger.

The money is committed. The programme is published. The question for civils contractors is whether you’re positioned to access it.

Connor Lyons is commercial director at Rospower Projects, MRICS. We deliver earthworks, drainage, and civil engineering packages for highways and infrastructure clients across the UK. Contact us to discuss your project.