£241m M1 widening

the international, engineering, construction and services Group, has been awarded a contract of £241 million to widen the M1 from Junction 6A to Junction 10 for the UK Highways Agency.

Preparation and design work will commence shortly with construction scheduled to begin towards the end of the year.

The M1 through Hertfordshire carries an average of 160,000 vehicles per day with long delays at peak times. The widening will improve safety, reduce congestion and deliver greater journey time reliability.

The work will be carried out on both carriageways to bring it up to a full standard four-lane motorway with continuous hard shoulders.

There will be new interchanges at Junctions 8 and 9 and distribution roads will be constructed to improve traffic flows through Junction 8.

In an unrelated deal, the company was also recently awarded two contracts in Sweden with a total value of approximately £50 million.

The contracts are for the construction of about 110 kilometres of track between Nyland and Husum in the northern part of Sweden and the electrification of a 120 kilometre railway line between Kristianstad and Karlskrona along the Blekinge coastline in southern Sweden.