Transport Scotland has published a new contract notice for the construction of the £150m A9 Dualling: Tomatin to Moy dualling, but the timetable for the scheme has slipped even further.
The Scottish Government cancelled an earlier procurement in February after receiving just one bidder. At that time, it said a new procurement competition would aim to achieve a contract award before the end of 2023.
Transport Scotland said this month that it is anticipated the contract will be awarded in early Summer 2024.
First minister Humza Yousaf, a former transport minister, announced the launch of the new procurement during a Parliamentary Statement on the devolved administration’s Programme for Government.
Màiri McAllan, cabinet secretary for transport, net zero and just transition, said: ‘Progression of the A9 Dualling Programme continues to be a priority for this Government and today’s announcement underlines our commitment to one of the largest, most complex infrastructure programmes in Scotland’s history.
‘Today’s announcement is another positive step towards full dualling and I can assure you that my officials and I continue to work urgently to progress the remainder of this critical programme.’
Transport Scotland said publication of the contract notice followed an extensive market consultation exercise resulting in a new contract designed to attract more bidders to the competition.
The procurement will use an amended version of the NEC4 model contract, which Transport Scotland said is ‘preferred by the industry and used widely across the UK’.
It added that this would provide a more balanced approach to the sharing of risk between Scottish ministers and the contractor and represents a significant change in the way that it contracts its major infrastructure projects.
Grahame Barn, chief executive of the Civil Engineering Contractor’s Association (CECA) Scotland said: ‘The move to NEC4 is a welcome change and aligns Transport Scotland with other major clients across the UK.
'Whilst this contract is to be an amended version of NEC4, I am comforted by the assurances that the changes are mostly around process and do not, once again, transfer significant risk from the client to the contractor.'
Transport Scotland said the project is expected to take around three years to build, which would mean a completion date of at least 2027.
The Tomatin to Moy project is the third of 11 sections of the A9 Dualling Perth to Inverness dualling, which was originally due to be completed by 2025 and is costed at £3bn at 2008 prices.
