A contract worth up to £30million to take forward the upgrade of the northern part of the A96 Aberdeen-Inverness road is up for grabs.
Transport Scotland has published a notice looking for a multi-disciplinary consultant to progress the development, assessment and promotion of the preferred option for the 18-mile Inverness to Nairn stretch of the road.
The contract includes the Nairn bypass.
The Scottish Government has vowed to dual 86-miles of the main north-east trunk road at a cost of £3billion by 2030. The project will also include bypasses at Forres, Elgin, Keith and Inverurie.
Transport Secretary Keith Brown said: “This contract, when awarded, will be worth at least £30million, and reinforces our determination to invest in this road and all of our city-to-city roads to bring them up to full dual-carriageway standard.
“Dualling the A96 is a significant undertaking which requires careful, in-depth planning and design to ensure that we deliver the right scheme to help tackle congestion and provide better journey time reliability and road safety for all users.
“In addition to the preliminary work we are undertaking on the whole of the A96 corridor, we are currently progressing the route option assessment work for the 30km (18 miles) Inverness to Nairn, including the Nairn bypass scheme, and expect to announce a preferred option for this scheme later this year when our plans will go on public display.”
The design consultant for the Inverness-Nairn section of the road is expected to be appointed early next year. Once the preferred option for the road upgrade is drawn up, draft orders should be published in 2016.
As the scheme is progressed, individuals, communities and businesses affected by the work will be kept fully informed and their “vital feedback” taken into account.
