Highways England has awarded a raft of smart motorways jobs to contractors worth up to £1.5bn.

Balfour Beatty in a joint venture with Vinci has taken the largest deal for a 10-mile stretch of the M5 Junctions 4a to 6 in Worcestershire; a 12-mile section of the M6 Junctions 2 to 4 in the Midlands, and a 32-mile stretch of the M4 Junctions 3 to 12 in London and Berkshire.

The contract is worth up to £607.4m and work on the first £45.4m package on the M4 will start this autumn.

The M6 deal is expected to start work in 2017/18 and the M4 scheme in 2016/17.

Kier has secured work worth up to £475m in a 50/50 joint venture with Carillion under the Collaborative Delivery Framework.

The JV will work on the 19 mile stretch of the M6 running from Junction 16 to 19 and the M6 running from Junction 13 to 15, as well as the M20 between Junction 3 and 5 and the M23 from Junction 8 to 10.

The first phase of the contract on the M6 (J16-19), worth £129.5m is due to begin this autumn with the other packages phased for delivery over the next four years.

Galliford Try has also won deals worth up to £367m in a joint venture with Costain.

The Galliford Try and Costain joint venture has won a construction package including delivery of the M1 J19 to J16 Smart Motorway in Northamptonshire, starting this autumn at a value of £65m.

It has also been appointed to construct two future schemes: the M1 J24 to J25 in the East Midlands, and the M1 J13 to J16 in Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire.

Both are expected to commence in 2016/17 at an estimated combined value of up to £302m subject to the agreement of target costs.

Amey and Arup have also won deals worth up to £25m on the M1 to design a smart motorway to relieve congestion between junctions 24 and 25 and junctions 13 and 16.

Working across 45km of road network, Amey and Arup will design the technology and infrastructure required to operate a smart motorway; including strengthening of the hard shoulder, creation of emergency refuge areas, new signage, gantries and central reservation barriers.

Joint ventures between CH2M and Hyder and Jacobs and Atkins have also won design deals.