Balfour Beatty, Carillion, Costain and a BAM Nuttall/Morgan Sindall Joint Venture have been awarded a £184M motorway scheme to upgrade a 17 mile stretch of the M60 and M62 near Manchester to ‘smart motorway’.
The contract has been awarded under the Highways Agency National Major Projects Framework and will employ 1000 construction workers at its height.
Balfour Beatty’s UK construction business will lead delivery of the scheme for the Highways Agency through a collaboration agreement with the three other framework delivery partners. This agreement will reduce individual contractor risk and is intended to encourage knowledge sharing and best practice.
Under the scheme the M60 between junctions 8 and 12 will be upgraded to a controlled motorway with traffic flows managed by technology interventions responsive to the volume of traffic on the network.
Meanwhile the M62 between junctions 18 and 20 will become a four lane, all lane running motorway by adapting the hard shoulder for continuous use and using electronic signs to manage traffic flows.
Construction work will start in July with completion scheduled for Autumn 2017. Work is to include installing and refurbishing gantries, new static and variable signs, lighting, concrete safety barriers, drainage and surfacing works.
This project is expected increase capacity, reduce congestion and shorten journey times for motorists once completed.
Balfour Beatty Executive Chairman, Steve Marshall said: “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.”
Costain chief executive Andrew Wyllie 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.”
