Work is to be carried out to improve roads access to Inverness Campus – including starting a project to create a new link to the retail park.
Pat Munro Civil Engineering has been awarded a contract to extend the existing road in order to open up new parts of the Beechwood site for development.
It will also complete the approach to what will eventually be a new railway bridge into Inverness Shopping Park.
There is already a pedestrian and cycle link to the retail park – but the new road will open up a route for public transport.
It will also run next to the site recently earmarked for the city’s new £66million prison.
A spokesman for campus developer Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) said: “The contract is to extend the existing road to access other parts of the campus, but also the approach to where the new bridge will be.”
Alness-based Pat Munro has already been responsible for seven projects within the campus development.
These include building the existing footpath and cycleway, which connects with the retail park at the back of the Homebase unit.
Other notable contributions by the contractor include road surfacing at the college building, building the haul road for construction traffic and connecting the student accommodation block to the water mains.
The current contract involves earthworks, fitting multiple utilities and the road construction itself.
The company will also fit a “feature” stone wall as part of the works.
The new link road will extend from the north end of the campus and will be open for use for buses, as well as bicycles and pedestrians.
HIE has previously said that a timescale for building the bridge over the Inverness to Perth railway is yet to be determined and will be dependent on funding.
However, it is expected to be developed in the next two years.
The new road is designed to tie into a number of other links into the campus, including the existing footbridge over the railway and the Golden Bridge over the A9 which connects the campus to the city via a cycle path.
