Balfour Beatty, the international infrastructure group, in joint venture with Skanska UK, has been awarded a £321 million design and construction contract to upgrade sections of the M25 London orbital motorway for the Highways Agency.
Working as part of the Connect Plus design, build, finance and operate (DBFO) contract which is responsible for the M25 and strategic arterial routes, a 50/50 construction joint venture consisting of Balfour Beatty and Skanska will be responsible for constructing the infrastructure for Managed Motorways on 46km of the M25 in two sections between junctions 5 to 7 and junctions 23 to 27 through Kent, Surrey, Essex and Hertfordshire.
Managed Motorways add extra capacity to a motorway by converting the hard shoulder to a traffic lane and control traffic more effectively using variable speed limits. It is a technology-driven approach to motorway management, using overhead gantries, lane specific signals and driver information signs.
This scheme includes the upgrade of the central reservation to a concrete barrier to restrict the impact of incidents and reduce delays for motorists, as well as the installation of road management technology including electronic matrix signs, CCTV cameras and emergency refuge areas for vehicles.
Work on the 25 month contract will begin in January this year, and is scheduled for completion by February 2015.
Commenting today, Ian Tyler, Balfour Beatty Chief Executive, said: “We are very pleased to have been awarded this new contract on the M25. It builds on our existing contracts across the UK roads network and strengthens our position in the transportation arena, which is a core strategic sector for us globally.”
Balfour Beatty will bring industry leading capabilities in value engineering and sustainable initiatives such as the re-use of materials and the application of new intelligence-based Building Information Modelling techniques, including 3D laser scanning.
These innovative techniques were applied to the M25 Initial Upgrade Section of the DBFO contract which included the widening and upgrading of nearly forty miles of the northern half of the M25 which was completed seven weeks ahead of schedule in 2012.
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Balfour Beatty plc
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Balfour Beatty plc
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Notes to editors:
1. Balfour Beatty (www.balfourbeatty.com) is a world-class infrastructure group with capabilities in professional services, construction services, support services and infrastructure investments. We Balfour Beatty (www.balfourbeatty.com) is a world-class infrastructure group with capabilities in professional services, construction services, support services and infrastructure investments.
We work in partnership with our customers principally in the UK, continental Europe, the US, South-East Asia, Australia and the Middle East, who value the highest levels of quality, safety and technical expertise.
Key infrastructure markets include transportation (roads, rail and airports); social infrastructure (education, specialist healthcare, and various types of accommodation); utilities (water, gas and power transmission and generation) and commercial (offices, leisure and retail).
The Group delivers services essential to the development, creation and care of these infrastructure assets including project design, financing and management, engineering and construction, and facilities management services.
Balfour Beatty employs 50,000 people around the world.
2. Balfour Beatty’s strategic roads portfolio in the UK currently consists of the £89 million M4/M5 Managed Motorway scheme, the Highways Agency’s Area 4 (South East), Area 10 (North West), Regional Technology Maintenance Contracts in the North West and South West, the Scotland TranServ contract for management and maintenance of major trunk roads in the South West of Scotland and several local authority maintenance contracts across the UK.
3. The M25 DBFO contract is a 30 year concession contract for the upgrade and maintenance of Europe’s busiest motorway awarded in 2009 by the Highways Agency to Connect Plus, a consortium comprising Balfour Beatty (40%), Skanska (40%), Atkins (10%) and Egis Projects SA (10%).