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In England, the strategic road network is managed and operated by Highways England, a government owned company, on behalf of the Secretary of State for Transport. Highways England outsources maintenance on its network to private sector providers across 13 separate geographical areas. The recent contract forms for maintenance are more outcome-based and less prescriptive than earlier forms. This article describes elements of the implementation of the most recent Asset Support Contracts on two contracts (Area 3 and 9), managed by EM Highway Services and discusses the principal challenges and the opportunities arising for implementation of asset management to ensure a sustainable and serviceable high quality asset and customer experience.