In June 2014 the Connect Roads consortium, now known as Aberdeen Roads Ltd was selected as preferred bidder to design, build, finance and operate the £550m Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route / Balmedie-Tipperty project. The clients are Transport Scotland, Aberdeen City Council and Aberdeenshire Council. (See previous report here.)
The £550m final contract price is way within the initial overall project budget of £745m previously cited by Transport Scotland.
Each consortium member – Balfour Beatty, Carillion and Galliford Try (Morrison Construction) – will invest up to £20m. Construction will be undertaken by the three contractors in an equal joint venture. Once the construction is complete, the trunk road assets will be managed by Aberdeen Roads Ltd and maintained by Balfour Beatty on its behalf for 30 years.
Main construction work starts now and is expected to be completed in winter 2017. The project includes designing and constructing 58km of new dual carriageway. The contract also includes constructing 40km of new side roads, 30km of access tracks and more than 100 new structures, including two major bridges over the rivers Dee and Don.
The road consists of four sections:
- Balmedie to Tipperty: 12km from Blackdog to Tipperty
- Northern leg: 16.1km from North Kingswells to Blackdog
- Southern leg: 18.7km from Charleston to North Kingswells
- Fastlink: 11.5km from Stonehaven to Cleanhill.
The project is being procured under the Scottish government’s non-profit distributing (NPD) model.
Balfour Beatty executive chairman Steve Marshall said: “This project demonstrates the value of combining our investment, construction and maintenance capabilities to deliver value for our customers.”
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