Multi-million pound A9 design contracts open to interest
18th April 2013
The civil engineering industry is to receive a boost through the opportunity to bid for three of the biggest Scottish Government funded design contracts ever offered.
Transport Scotland has today published the Prior Information Notice for the design work on the A9 dualling project, signalling the start of procurement.
Three separate large contracts, each with a value of £40 - £60 million, are on offer - a clear indication of the scale of the A9 dualling. These contracts will cover the A9 between Perth and Inverness, with the actual area covered by each contract to be determined during the procurement process.
Transport Minister Keith Brown said: “This £3 billion complex and challenging programme will be one of the biggest infrastructure projects in Scotland’s history. The sheer scale, 80 miles of dual carriageway, makes it good business and value for money to split this design work into three large sections.
"The start of procurement for the detailed design work is a clear indication of our commitment to this project. These contracts will provide steady work for the next 12 years for the three successful bidders – providing much needed certainty and helping to secure jobs. In addition, these commissions are likely to offer many opportunities for small and medium enterprises through sub-consultancy work."
“I am confident that there will be a lot of interest in this project and look forward to seeing that evidenced when the OJEU for the three design contracts issues this Summer.
"During design and then construction, this project will deliver hundreds of jobs, directly and indirectly.
“When completed the fully dualled route will bring many benefits to road users, communities and businesses who live along or use this important route between central Scotland and the Highlands and Islands including improved journey times and journey time reliability and improved road safety.”
Transport Scotland will engage with the consulting engineering industry, ahead of issuing the OJEU notice in the Summer, seeking expressions of interest from companies wishing to tender.
In a further boost to the industry, tenders are also being sought for aerial topographical surveys as part of the A9 and A96 dualling programmes.
The contract, advertised today by Transport Scotland will help support the corridor wide preliminary design work on the A9 that is underway. At the same time aerial surveys will be carried out on the A96, where work is not as far advanced, to help inform the preliminary engineering services work that will shortly start on the route.
Commenting on the contract for aerial surveys, Mr Brown said: “There is a great amount of work now going on to take forward this Government’s commitment to dual the A9 between Perth and Inverness by 2025
“This aerial survey work will build on the engineering and environmental work well underway and the ground investigation work currently going on along the Luncarty to Pass of Birnam section of the route.
“Along with our plans to dual the A9, we are also committed to dual the A96 between Inverness and Aberdeen by 2030. Although this work is not as far advanced, this topographical work will complement the preliminary engineering work that is to get underway shortly as we start to develop our plans to dual this vital route which links Scotland’s two northernmost cities.
“Dualling the A96 is a significant undertaking which will require careful, in-depth planning and design to ensure that we deliver the right scheme to help tackle congestion and provide better journey time reliability and road safety for motorists. The outline strategy for dualling the A96 is expected to be completed shortly and further details of how the dualling will be taken forward will be announced at that time.”
