£20m cut from road work costs for crossing

Published on Thursday 30 June 2011 17:38

MORE than £20 million is set to be saved on a motorway upgrade being carried out as part of the works to build the new Forth road bridge.

The winning bid for the M9 junction work at Kirkliston was awarded with a tender price of 25.6m, infrastructure secretary Alex Neil said yesterday.

The figure is about half the original estimated price range of 46-65m.

A joint venture between John Sisk and Roadbridge was selected ahead of three rival bids for the work.

The Junction 1a contract will support at least 125 construction jobs, in addition to the hundreds generated by the main bridge and other necessary road works.

Mr Neil said yesterday: "Today's announcement that the preferred bid for the M9 Junction 1a contract is substantially under-budget demonstrates further significant savings for the public purse.

"While it is clear that the current construction market is highly competitive, this is also testament to Transport Scotland's robust procurement and project management."

The new Forth road bridge is scheduled to open in 2016 and will cost about 1.3 billion, down on initial estimates of 1.7-2.3bn.

It will replace the current bridge as the main crossing for traffic, amid concerns over corrosion on its cables.

Mr Neil added: "It will secure over 3,000 jobs and economic revenue of 1.3bn that would otherwise have been lost through re-cabling of the Forth Road Bridge.

"It will also deliver a welcome boost to the Scottish construction industry, creating hundreds of jobs and many further sub-contracting opportunities for local firms, estimated by the British Chambers of Commerce to be worth around 6bn to Scotland's economy."

A 12.9 million contract to create an "intelligent transport system" was awarded last month to Northern Ireland-based firm John Graham (Dromore).