Balfour Beatty, the international infrastructure group, today announces the award of a £184 million motorway scheme to upgrade a 17 mile stretch of the M60 and M62 to a ‘smart motorway’. The upgrade, for the UK Government’s Highways Agency, will increase capacity, reduce congestion and shorten journey times for motorists, and employ 1,000 construction workers at its height.
The upgrade is being delivered under the Highways Agency National Major Projects Framework. Balfour Beatty’s UK construction business will lead delivery of the scheme through a collaboration agreement with the three other framework delivery partners: Costain, Carillion and a BAM Nuttall Morgan Sindall joint venture. The collaboration agreement will reduce individual contractor risk and encourage knowledge sharing and best practice.
The M60 between junctions 8 and 12 will be upgraded to a controlled motorway with traffic flows managed by technology interventions responsive to the volume of traffic on the network. The M62 between junctions 18 and 20 will become a four-lane, all lane running motorway by adapting the hard shoulder for continuous use and using electronic signs to manage traffic flows.
Construction work, to start in July with completion scheduled for Autumn 2017, will include installing and refurbishing gantries, new static and variable signs, lighting, concrete safety barriers, drainage and surfacing works. Balfour Beatty will employ a public liaison team throughout construction due to the proximity of the scheme to a large concentration of businesses and residents.
Balfour Beatty Executive Chairman, Steve Marshall said: “We have been working with the Highways Agency for twenty years and look forward to building on that successful relationship. This scheme will benefit the 180,000 road users that pass through this section of the motorway network every day. We are committed to lead this project in a collaborative way with our partners, employing local people and businesses in our supply chain.”
Find out more about our Construction Services UK Division
Analyst/investor enquiries:
Anoop Kang
Tel. +44 (0)20 7216 6913
anoop.kang@balfourbeatty.com
Media enquiries:
Dominic Cheetham
Tel. +44 (0)20 7963 4258
dominic.cheetham@balfourbeatty.com
Notes to editors:
Balfour Beatty (www.balfourbeatty.com) is an international infrastructure group that delivers world class services essential to the development, creation and care of infrastructure assets; from finance and development, through design and project management to construction and maintenance.
Our businesses draw on more than 100 years of experience to deliver the highest levels of quality, safety and technical expertise to our clients principally in the UK and the USA, with developing businesses in Australia, Canada, the Middle East, South Africa and South East Asia.
With proven expertise in delivering infrastructure critical to support communities and society today and in the future, our key market sectors focus on infrastructure - transportation (roads, rail and aviation), power and energy, water, and complex buildings (both commercial and social).
Balfour Beatty employs 40,000 people around the world.
