Birse, Carillion and May Gurney / Jackson JV chase £117m Norfolk road

Only three firms are on the starting grid for a controversial £116.5m roads project in East Anglia.

The line-up for Norfolk County Council's Norwich Northern Distributor Road is Birse, Carillion and a JV between local outfit May Gurney and Jackson Civil Engineering.

A source said: "There seems to be a lack of interest in this project. Nothing comes to mind to put bidders off and firms' reticence seems strange given the current economic downturn.

"But the council believes it can still get value for money from a line-up of only three because it expects the bids to be especially competitive."

The scheme has a chequered history. Last year, the council looked set to hand the deal to May Gurney because it feared few firms would want to pitch for it.

But the council was subsequently forced to put the project out to tender after warnings from the Department for Transport that Norfolk could fall foul of European tendering laws.

A preferred bidder for the Distributor Road is now expected early next year, with preliminary works on site starting in autumn 2010.

But the scheme will first have to survive a public inquiry, which is scheduled for September 2009.

The job includes 20.5km of mainly dual carriageway, eight bridges and 13 roundabouts.