Morgan Est to build A68 bypass

A Scottish road deal that has taken around 10 years to get off the ground has finally got a contractor on board.

Morgan Est is understood to have accelerated past its only remaining rival, a Morrison/Hochtief joint venture, for the A68 Dalkeith Northern Bypass, valued in the region of £30m.

Laing O'Rourke was also originally shortlisted to pitch for the scheme, but later pulled out of the contest.

Work on the new road was initially planned to start in the mid-1990s, but fell foul of the 1999 Strategic Roads Review.

The project involves the design, construction and maintenance of 5.3km of trunk road to take heavy traffic out of Dalkeith on the outskirts of Edinburgh.

[Contract Journal, 9 August 2006, p. 4]