Highways England has confirmed the award of a £96m contract to the Costain Galliford Try joint venture to upgrade a section of the M1 to an all lane running Smart Motorway.
The 12km section is between junctions 23a and 25 in the East Midlands.
An all lane running smart motorway with emergency refuge area
Enabling work for the new project, including site compound set-up and vegetation clearance, started earlier this year and Highways England has now given the go-ahead to proceed with construction.
Temporary traffic management starts imminently with full works due to complete late summer next year.
The joint venture is currently building its first scheme on the M1 in Northamptonshire between junctions 19 and 16, having been appointed as one of three delivery partners on the £1.5bn smart motorway programme in summer 2015.
Bob Gibbon, director of Galliford Try’s Highways business unit, said: ‘Confirmation of the second award is testament to the skills and dedication of our staff.
‘Our strong working relationship with our joint venture partner provides a robust platform from which we can continue to grow our presence in the major highways sector. We now stand in good stead for further opportunities that are coming to the market later this year.'
The full cost of the new scheme is £120m. It will involve:
- permanent conversion of the hard shoulder to create a fourth lane between junctions 24 and 25 and changing the junctions to accommodate this
- the introduction of variable mandatory speed limits with an associated enforcement/compliance system
- new CCTV cameras and electronic information signs and signals on gantries - these will show the variable mandatory speed limits and manage traffic flow and incidents
- emergency refuge areas throughout the length of the scheme
- the hardening of the central reserve and installation of a reinforced barrier to improve safety
- emergency roadside telephones (ERT) provided in within emergency refuge areas and in locations where the hard shoulder is retained
- queue detection and automatic signalling system, which provides queue protection and congestion management
- comprehensive low light pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) CCTV coverage
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