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

  • A new Norwegian bridge project
    June 15, 2020
    A new Norwegian bridge project will be built.
  • Bridge formwork solutions complete big bridge picture
    July 2, 2014
    Advanced bridge formwork solutions are allowing contractors to complete vital major highway infrastructure projects covering Norway, Sweden, Estonia and Poland. Guy Woodford reports Building the Labbdalen bridges in Norway is a key feature of the E6 highway improvement programme. Main project contractor HÆHRE tasked RMD Kwikform and Teknikk with supplying a complete formwork and shoring solution that could tackle the challenging Norwegian terrain, whilst preserving the environment. Situated two hours
  • Bridge collapse on key I-5 route in Washington State
    June 24, 2013
    The news that a key highway bridge has collapsed in the US comes as gloomy reading for all in the highway sector. When a section of the Interstate 5 Bridge over the Skagit River in Washington failed in May 2013, a number of vehicles were plunged into the river. Luckily no-one was killed in the incident on the route, which is one of the main links between the US and Canada, and the parallel bridge was able to carry traffic, albeit with delays for users.
  • Rotenberg’s Mostotrest to fight for $5 billion Russia’s road-building contract
    December 2, 2013
    Interest is strong in one of Russia’s premier projects for road infrastructure - Eugene Gerden reports The State Company Russian Highways (Avtodor) has officially announced a tender for the construction of the sixth - and longest - section of the Moscow - St Petersburg highway. Avtodor is Russia’s leading company in the field of development of national road infrastructure, while this is one of the largest and most controversial projects in Russian road building in recent years. The 6th section of the