Three firms have been shortlisted by Transport for Scotland for the contract of the third upgrade set on the £3bn A9 dualling project in Scotland. Wills Bros Civil Engineering, Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering and John Graham Construction will now fight it out to upgrade the 9.6 km line of the A9 from Tomatin to Moy.
The construction contract is expected to be awarded by the Transport Scotland in the second half of 2022. The shortlist was declared after critical enabling works on the demolition of a 1884 masonry arch rail bridge located at Lynebeg, near Inverness was completed, including a successful installation of the new structure on a 78 hour possession of the Highland Mainline.
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Works on the A9 Dualling project
The bridge replacement completion at the Lynebeg rail bridge marks a critical milestone in the progress of the Tomatin to Moy A9 dualling project in Scotland and has been the climax of years of great preparation and planning with the Network Rail together with Transport Scotland, contractor BAM Nuttall and Atkins Mouchel Joint Venture. Additionally to the new rail bridge, further advance works on the A9 Dualling project are set to start early in 2022 and will see the construction of a modern non-motorised user route (NMU) that will greatly help in local access to a shelter and new bus layby on the B1954.
The Lynebeg bridge replacement works, Network Rail’s Programme Manager, Billy McKay stated: “The installation was complicated because of the requirement to remove the existing railway infrastructure together with cabling, track and the embankment, before pushing the concrete bridge into its last position. And all against the clock because of the need to reinstate and re-open the line to motorists at the end of the possession.”
