The £415m construction works includes plans to upgrade the A8 Baillieston to Newhouse, completing the motorway between Glasgow and Edinburgh, as well as improvements to the M74 Raith Interchange and the widening of key sections of the M8, M73 and M74.
The four consortia selected to bid are:
- Scottish Roads Partnership: Amey Ventures Asset Holdings; Cintra Infraestructuras; Meridiam Infrastructure Finance II; Uberior Infrastructure Investments (No.4) Ltd
- Connect Roads: Balfour Beatty Capital; Galliford Try Investments
- Scotia Roads Group: BAM PPP PGGM Infrastructure Coöperatie; Costain Engineering & Construction; Iridium Concesiones de Infraestructuras; Sir Robert McAlpine Capital Ventures
- Caledonia Roads Group: Macquarie Capital Group; Vialia Sociedad Gestora de Concesiones de Infraestructuras; FCC Construcción; John Graham Holdings; John Sisk & Son.
Construction on the M8 M73 M74 improvements project is expected to start in late 2013 with completion by 2017.
The project is of a similar scale to the recent M74 Completion, which directly supported 900 construction jobs, and is expected to shave up to 18 minutes off the journey time for around 115,000 vehicles per day which use the busiest sections of the M8.
Scotland’s cabinet secretary for infrastructure and capital investment Alex Neil said: “I am delighted to see such strong interest in this project from a host of world class contractors. Strong competition can only be good news for the taxpayer and we also know from our experience on our recent, successful M74 Completion and M80 projects, this kind of infrastructure project will undoubtedly boost the local and Scottish economy, supporting hundreds of local construction and supplier jobs.
“This project will see us complete the vital central belt motorway network and is good news for motorists, for the construction industry and for the Scottish economy.
“These are tough economic times and decisions are made every day about spending priorities. However, this government strongly believes that spending on infrastructure projects such as this is key to boosting our economy and I look forward to seeing similar benefits to those delivered by the recent M74 completion and M80 Stepps to Haggs projects.”
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