Seven to contest £100m Lancashire Link Road

Seven contractors are expected to pick up the tender paperwork next month for a £132m road deal being promoted by Lancashire County Council.

Insiders say that Birse, Skanska, BAM Nuttall, Laing O'Rourke, Carillion, Costain and a consortium of Morgan Est/Vinci/Sir Robert McAlpine are among those hoping to make the grade for the Heysham to M6 link road project.

A source said: "No-one knows the exact line-up yet, but it is expected that as many as seven firms will be shortlisted to work up bids.

"It's not unusual for councils to have this many firms to tender for work, but especially in these hard times it's a fair bet that the council will get good value for money because with all these contractors on the list, bids are sure to be ultra-competitive."

The start date for the main highways works is planned for 2010, with an expected completion date of 2014.

The job includes 4.8km of two-lane dual carriageway, with intermediate junctions and a combined footpath/cycleway along its entire length.

Work also involves alterations to the local road networks and constructing 23 major structures including bridges over the West Coast Mainline railway, Lancaster Canal and the River Lune.

The contract represents the completion of the Heysham to M6 link.

Phase one of the project, also known as the Lancaster/Morecambe bypass, was built by Birse and Cumbrian Industrials (now part of the Hanson Group) and opened to traffic in 1994.

The scheme is intended to improve links for freight traffic between Heysham Port and the M6 and will also mean that traffic travelling between the M6 and the Morecambe and Heysham peninsula will no longer have to go through Lancaster city centre.