Transport Scotland has announced its intention to award Balfour Beatty a £62 million design and build contract, part of £96m worth of investment to construct the second phase section of the A9 Dualling Programme, which will run from Luncarty to the Pass of Birnam.
The contract will be the second to be awarded as part of the Scottish Government’s ambitious £3 billion programme to dual the A9 between Perth and Inverness. It follows the completion of the first section from Kincraig to Dalraddy which became fully operational in September 2017.
This marks the final phase in the procurement process, which subject to the successful completion of the mandatory standstill period, it is expected that the contract will be awarded in the coming weeks.
Upon completion of the A9 Luncarty to Pass of Birnam, road users will benefit from 15km of continuous dual carriageway from Inveralmond roundabout in Perth to the Pass of Birnam.
In addition to the construction of 9.5km of new dual carriageway, the construction of the Luncarty to Pass of Birnam section will involve four new overbridges to maintain local access across the A9, the widening of one existing underbridge and the provision of a new side road bridge.
As a result, the safety of the A9 will be improved by replacing at-grade junctions with grade separated junctions and providing safer overtaking opportunities along the route. Together, these improvements will reduce driver stress whilst improving journey times and overall operational effectiveness.
Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity, Michael Matheson, said: “This marks another significant milestone in the timeline of this major transport infrastructure project for Scotland to upgrade 80 miles of single carriageway between Perth and Inverness.
“This investment will vastly improve connectivity between the Highland and Islands and Scotland’s central belt, delivering far reaching benefits to the wider Scottish economy.
“The dualling of the A9 will create hundreds of new jobs throughout the construction phases which will leave a lasting legacy of a highly-skilled workforce, bolstering Scotland’s construction industry. The project will also act as a catalyst to attract significant inward investment and stimulate continued growth of our business communities, especially the tourism industry along this key route.
“The Scottish Government is committed to delivering this £3bn infrastructure improvement project to dual the A9 between Perth and Inverness by 2025.”
Hector MacAulay, Balfour Beatty Managing Director for Scotland, said: “We are delighted to be part of the major programme to upgrade the A9. We look forward to delivering this important infrastructure project which will bring travel and safety improvements to all road users whilst generating significant benefit to the local community and economy.”
ENDS
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Notes to editors:
- Balfour Beatty (balfourbeatty.com) is a leading international infrastructure group. With 28,000 employees, we provide innovative and efficient infrastructure that underpins our daily lives, supports communities and enables economic growth. We finance, develop, build and maintain complex infrastructure such as transportation, power and utility systems, social and commercial buildings.
- Our main geographies are the UK & Ireland, US and Far East. Over the last 100 years we have created iconic buildings and infrastructure all over the world including the London Olympics’ Aquatic Centre, Hong Kong’s first Zero Carbon building, the National Museum of the Marine Corps in the US and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.
- Balfour Beatty has been operating in Scotland for over a century. Today, the company employs 2,000 people across Scotland and works with a supply chain that includes a substantial proportion of local businesses.
- The company’s construction business recently completed the award winning Holyrood Student Accommodation development, providing 1,180 student beds within the World Heritage Site of Holyrood in the City of Edinburgh and the construction of a Typhoon Propulsion Service Facility to support the rebuild and supply of the EJ200 engines used by 3 Typhoon Squadron.
- Significant projects in the Company’s current portfolio include the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route which will improve the transport network in Aberdeen and across the north east of Scotland, the £14m Almondbank Flood Defence Scheme to deliver a series of flood defences along the River Almond and construct a temporary flood storage unit and the Perth Transport Futures project which will see the creation of a new junction on the A9 dual carriageway to support growth in Scotland’s third busiest region.
- Iconic projects of the past include the construction of the new Elgin High School, the first school delivered by Balfour Beatty on behalf of hub North Scotland, the refurbishment of the Forth Bridge which carries the East Coast Mainline over the Firth of Forth and the Fife General Hospital and Maternity Services project which centralised specialist in-patient, acute and emergency services on one site.
