Balfour Beatty announced today that the Highways Agency has awarded Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering the Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) contract for the A421 scheme between the M1 and Bedford.
The Highways Agency scheme budget for the contract is £171 million. The construction programme is due to start in early 2008, with the new road scheduled to open in 2010. Work on the design development, statutory process and environmental statement will commence immediately.
The existing A421 is largely single carriageway, is extremely busy and carries a high proportion of HGV traffic. In the new scheme, M1 Junction 13 will be remodelled and a 13 kilometre dual carriageway will be built linking the M1 with the existing ring road to the south of Bedford.
Balfour Beatty’s current ECI portfolio consists of the A1(M) Bramham to Wetherby upgrade, the A3 Hindhead improvement, the A303 scheme adjacent to Stonehenge, the A46 Newark to Widmerpool improvement and the M1 Junction 6a to 10 widening scheme which will commence construction early next year.
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