Balfour Beatty wins £78m managed motorways scheme

The scheme, the first managed motorways scheme in the southwest of England, will use a range of technologies and new operating procedures in a bid to improve traffic flow, cut congestion, regulate journey times and improve road safety.

Balfour Beatty's scope of work will allow the Highways Agency to introduce variable mandatory speed limits and open up the hard shoulder to traffic during periods of exceptionally heavy traffic at congestion bottle necks on the M4 and the M5.

Balfour Beatty chief executive Ian Tyler reckons: "This is an innovative scheme that will assist in bringing greater capacity to our motorway network.”

Subject to statutory processes, construction work is due to start between January and March 2012 with the completed scheme opening to traffic in sometime in 2013 or 2014.

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