Balfour Beatty, Carillion and a BAM Nuttall/Morgan Sindall joint venture are the others who will work on the £184 million contract that has been awarded under the HA’s National Major projects framework.
The scheme will upgrade a 17 mile stretch of the M60 and M62 to become a ‘smart motorway’, which will improve capacity and journey times and reduce congestion by controlling traffic flows through remote technology in response to real time monitoring of traffic volumes on the network. The project will be managed through a collaboration agreement which will enable the partners to share knowledge and best practice.Work will commence in July and is expected to complete in autumn 2017.
Roads Minister Robert Goodwill said: “This scheme is part of the record £24 billion investment we are making in the road network over this Parliament and the next to support economic growth.
“It will tackle the congestion and unpredictable journey times that users of the M60 and M62 experience every day, which costs the economy some £2 billion a year. It is also good news for the construction industry as more than a thousand jobs will be created to help deliver these vital improvements.”
Andrew Wyllie, chief executive of Costain, said: “The upgrading of our road network infrastructure is essential to maintaining and improving connectivity amongst the various regions of the UK, and thus to enabling the nation’s economy to grow. We look forward to working in collaboration with the Highways Agency and with our partners to deliver this project, using the latest in new and innovative traffic management technology.”
Balfour Beatty executive chairman, Steve Marshall, added: “We have been working with the Highways Agency for 20 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.”
