Balfour Beatty gets £185 million contract for A9 dualling

The Scottish Government will award a contract for the dualling of a section of the A9 to Balfour Beatty

The construction giant will be tasked with dualling the road between Tomatin and Moy, at a cost of £184.7m, Transport Scotland announced on Tuesday.

The Scottish Government has been criticised for its failure to dual the road between Perth and Inverness – despite having set a target of 2025 for doing so.

A new target of 2035 has since been set.

Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop said once construction begins on the six-mile stretch, it will not stop “until dualling between Perth and Inverness is complete”.

She added: “The award of this contract for A9 Dualling: Tomatin to Moy will start our rolling programme of construction to dual the A9 between Perth and Inverness and reinforces our steadfast commitment to deliver on our plan.

“Major transport infrastructure supports the local community and businesses, providing jobs and delivering economic growth throughout the project and beyond.”

It was issues with the Tomatin to Moy section which led to former transport minister Jenny Gilruth saying the initial 2025 deadline was “unachievable”.

A previous attempt to secure work resulted in just one tender which far exceeded the £115m anticipated cost and did not represent value for money for the taxpayer.

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