CIVIL engineering firm RJ McLeod (Contractors) is the big winner in the £37m package of contracts for south-west roads.
Transport Scotland is to award the contracts “imminently” for the A77 Symington to Bogend Toll Improvements, A75 Dunragit Bypass and the A75 Hardgrove improvement schemes. McLeod will handle the first two, with a combined contract value of £27.7m with the third going to Northern Ireland contractor McLaughlin and Harvey (£9m).
Work on the A77 scheme, worth £10.6m, is designed to reduce the number and severity of accidents over a length of approximately 6km and to remove “conflicting vehicle movements”.
Work calls for construction of grade-separated junctions and has been planned to take account of potential development in the A77 corridor and the effects of further house building.
McLeod’s second win, the Dunragit Bypass, has a construction cost of £17.13m and will improve journeys on the A75, which forms part of the Euro-route between Europe, Scotland and the rest of the UK via the ferry terminals at Loch Ryan in Dumfries and Galloway.
Safety will be improved by reducing driver frustration and the ‘platooning’ of vehicles by increasing the number of overtaking opportunities in both travel directions.
McLaughlin and Harvey’s contract on the A75 Hardgrove to Kinmount scheme, with a construction cost of £9m, is for a 3.6km stretch providing better overtaking in both directions.
All three jobs are expected to start in spring for completion next year.
