Birse lands £20m Liverpool highways job

Birse Civils has won £20m contract to deliver long-awaited improvements to Edge Lane on the route into Liverpool from the M62.
The firm will demolish 125 houses fronting Edge Lane and widen the road to a dual carriageway, as it is at the eastern end of Edge Lane towards the motorway.
Birse Civils will spend the first three months of the 23-month contract moving utilities pipes and services. Work is expected to be completed by the end of 2011.
Plans to demolish houses and widen the road at the western end were first tabled a decade ago but became bogged down in legal challenges to compulsory purchase orders.
Birse beat off rival bids from Bam Nuttall, Carillion Construction and Morrison Construction.
A further 250 properties will be demolished nearby under a separate contract, yet to be procured by Liverpool City Council, as part of a housing renewal programme.