Construction firm wins fresh bid for Borders rail link contract

CONSTRUCTION firm BAM Nuttall has won a second attempt at securing the £220 million main contract to build the Borders Railway, as The Scotsman revealed last month.

• Dutch firm is left as sole remaining bidder.

• Construction set to begin in March as trains to run in 2015

The Dutch company will construct the 30-mile line for Network Rail after it was left as the sole remaining bidder for the project under the Scottish Government’s now-scrapped plans for a novel non-profit method of completing the scheme.

Network Rail said the work would create some 500 jobs during work to re-open the link between Edinburgh and Tweedbank, south of Galashiels.

A series of previous problems with the project means trains are not expected to run until 2015 and the total cost has soared to £350m, as Scotland on Sunday revealed in October.

Interest

BAM Nuttall, which has already been involved with design work on the line, is expected to start construction in March, starting at Fountainhall, Tweedbank and Monktonhall.

The firm was involved in building the Airdrie-Bathgate rail line, which opened in 2010, and constructed the new Riverside Museum in Glasgow, which opened last year.

An unexpectedly high level of public interest in the project has been reported by Network Rail, which said more than 1,200 people had visited exhibitions about the scheme over the last few weeks.