The company’s infrastructure boss Chris Tyerman told Construction News the firm was winning several highways jobs north of the border.

He said the Scottish highways market provided a number of opportunities for the company and building a presence there was the “natural step to creating organic growth”.

Mr Tyerman was appointed as Interserve’s infrastructure head in November 2014 after a number of years at Costain, where his roles included director of highways maintenance and deputy managing director.

Interserve construction director Ian Renhard said at the time that Mr Tyerman’s appointment was part of the company’s strategy to grow its infrastructure division, singling out highways work as a particular area of strategic importance for the firm.

In March 2015, the company made the decision to target the Scottish highways sector, with Interserve bidding for its first roads job in the early part of 2016, following “positive conversations with Transport Scotland and local authorities”, Mr Tyerman said.

“There is certainly opportunity there.”

He added: “When we look at what projects are attractive to us and we look at who the customer is and what the funding process is… and whether it sits in a range of projects that allows us to operate competently and comprehensively, there are certainly schemes in Scotland that fall within that assessment criteria and that is the reason why we have moved towards that market.”

Interserve is already established in the highways sector in England, having secured a number of local and strategic road contracts in the past two years.

In June, it was selected on four out of six of the highways lots for the £1.5bn North-east Procurement Organisation framework covering infrastructure work across the region.

It was also one of five firms to be selected in the medium-value lot of Highways England’s £5bn Collaborative Delivery Framework for work up to £25m.

The £5bn CDF framework is set to be replaced in spring next year with a new £7bn Routes to Market framework

Mr Tyerman said Interserve would be targeting larger schemes in the new framework and wanted to become “a number one contractor” for Highways England.

“Working in lot two is a reasonable place to be in, but in the future we want to be in a much higher band of schemes where we can utilise our skills, in-house knowledge and experience to provide better outcomes for customers.”