Skip to main content

Scottish road upgrade being planned

Plans have been unveiled for a proposed road upgrade project in Scotland. These plans show the preferred route for the upgrade to the A96 between Nairn and Fochabers, towns which lie to the east of Inverness on Scotland’s North East coast. The project is being planned by Transport Scotland and will see the 45km road section being upgraded to dual carriageway status. The work will include building new crossings over the Aberdeen to Inverness rail links, as well as over the Spey, Findhorn and Lossie rivers.
December 6, 2018 Read time: 2 mins

Plans have been unveiled for a proposed road upgrade project in Scotland. These plans show the preferred route for the upgrade to the A96 between Nairn and Fochabers, towns which lie to the east of Inverness on Scotland’s North East coast. The project is being planned by Transport Scotland and will see the 45km road section being upgraded to dual carriageway status.

The work will include building new crossings over the Aberdeen to Inverness rail links, as well as over the Spey, Findhorn and Lossie rivers. Building a bridge over the Spey River will be subject to particularly strict environmental requirements as this river is central to some of Scotland’s most historic whisky distilleries.

Upgrading the A96 is long overdue as the present road does not cope well with traffic demand. The route is also subject to closures in winter, with the upgrade likely to make it easier to clear when conditions are severe. At present just 22km of the A96 route between Inverness and Aberdeen is of dual carriageway status. The plans call for the remaining 138km of the 160km A96 route between Inverness and Aberdeen to be upgraded to dual carriageway status.

Related Content

  • Chile-Argentina Agua Negra Tunnel progress
    February 16, 2018
    The names of the contractors offering bids for the new Agua Negra Tunnel project connecting Chile and Argentina will be revealed in March 2018. Several firms have already expressed a keen interest in this major engineering project. Contractors that have expressed interest include CRS, a consortium comprising China Railway Tunnel Group and Benito Roggio e Hijos. In addition, Ingenieria y Construccion Sigdo Koppers and OHL are also interested in the project as are the firms Rovella and Condotte. The project
  • Rapid replacement of multiple bridges – the plan
    December 14, 2017
    The US State of Pennsylvania is saving itself $220 million over 10 years on a programme to replace 558 bridges with an unusual public private partnership approach - Kristina Smith writes It is called the Rapid Bridge Replacement Programme with good reason. Pennsylvania’s Department of Transport, PennDOT, wants to see no less than 558 structurally deficient bridges replaced with newly designed and constructed ones, all within four years. Using traditional forms of procurement this programme would be like
  • Zipping up road lanes – with Barrier Systems
    September 10, 2018
    QMB has a Lindsay Road Zipper on duty near Montreal. World Highways deputy editor David Arminas climbed aboard As vice president of Canadian barrier specialist QMB, based in Laval, Quebec, Marc-Andre Seguin is sanguine about the future for moveable barriers. On the one hand, it looks good. The oft-stated advantage of moveable barriers is that the systems are cheaper to install than adding a lane or two to a highway or bridge. Directional changes to lanes can boost volume on a road without disrupting tra
  • Polish road works continue for STRABAG
    March 1, 2022
    Work on a Polish road project continues for STRABAG.