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Contract awarded for £126.4m congestion-busting managed motorway scheme on the M6 Junction 5 to 8 in Birmingham

Government Communications (NDS)

3 January 2012

The £126.4m scheme will cut congestion, make journey times more reliable and improve safety through the use of variable mandatory speed limits and opening the hard shoulder as an extra traffic lane on the M6 between junctions 5 to 8.Carillion has been awarded the construction contract, and advanced works are due to start from the end of next month. Main construction work will follow and is due to get underway between April and June 2012, subject to completion of a statutory process. The Highways Agency is working hard to ensure it gets maximum value for money for every pound spent and has identified an estimated £49m saving on the previous cost estimate.Roads Minister Mike Penning said: "I welcome today's contract award which confirms that the Highways Agency is on track to start work on this important scheme on time."This £126.4 million investment shows the Government is delivering on its promise to invest in transport schemes that reduce congestion, improve safety, and support economic growth. At the height of construction hundreds of people will be working on this project that will provide much needed additional capacity for more than 160,000 road users who use this motorway every day."Our experience shows that managed motorways deliver significant safety and journey time benefits. That's why the Government is continuing to invest in these schemes and has added two additional managed motorway schemes - one of which is the M6 J10A to J13 project - to the Agency's roads programme. This means that by 2015 work will have started on 13 such projects. "The Highways Agency is ensuring value for money and making excellent progress against its commitment to reduce the cost of major capital projects by 20 per cent across the roads programme."This project is phase three in a programme of work to deliver managed motorways to the M6. The innovative system is already in place between junctions 4 and 5, and junctions 8 and 10A - meaning that once completed in 2014-15, road users will benefit from smoother, more reliable journeys along a 20-mile stretch of the M6.For further information about the M6 junction 5 to 8 managed motorway scheme visit the Highways Agency website: http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/projects/23385.aspx Ends1. The Highways Agency is an executive agency of the Department for Transport. We manage, maintain and improve England's motorways and major A roads on behalf of the Secretary of State. 2. Carillion was selected from four delivery partners that were awarded the managed motorway national framework contract in February 2010. The four delivery partners are:Balfour BeattyBAM Nuttall / Morgan Sindall Joint Venture (bmJV)CarillionCostain/Serco Joint Venture3. The M6 J5-8 scheme will be the fourth managed motorway in the West Midlands region. The value of the contract awarded to Carillion is £104.9m. The estimated outturn cost of the M6 project is £126.4m (that includes the estimated £49m saving), which comprises construction costs at £105.5m (including an allowance for project and programme risk) and development costs. 4. Managed motorways use a range of innovative technology combined with new operating procedures to actively control traffic flow. Techniques such as varying the speed limits and opening up the hard shoulder to traffic are features of managed motorways all designed to improve traffic flow and reduce congestion.5. Key findings from research published in March 2011 shows that accidents have more than halved since hard shoulder running was introduced on 10.5 miles of M42 (J3a to J7), to the east of Birmingham; with journey times improved between the M40 J16, near Lapworth, and M6 J5, near Birmingham. See the press notice issued on 22 March 2011 for further details: http://www.highways.gov.uk/news/pressrelease.aspx?pressreleaseid=4187386. The first hard shoulder running scheme was introduced on the M42 J3a-7 in 2006 as a pilot scheme. This was followed by M6 J4 to J5 scheme in 2009 and then the M6 J8 to J10A scheme which opened to traffic in March 2011. The system is known as managed motorways and uses variable speed limits and opening up of the hard shoulder as an additional traffic lane. The operational changes to the M40 J16-3A and M42 J7-9 which were completed in August 2009 are known as controlled motorways. This involves the use of features such as variable speed limits but without hard shoulder running.Construction is underway on the M1 J10 to J13 managed motorway, with work due to be completed in 2013, and work started on the M62 J25 to J30 managed motorway on 13 October 2011 and is due to be completed in 2013/147. For more general information about the Highways Agency and its work, visit the Highways Agency website www.highways.gov.uk, or call the Highways Agency Information Line on 0300 123 5000 at any time. (Calls to 0300 numbers will cost no more than 5p per minute from a standard BT residential landline. Call charges from other landlines and mobile networks may vary, but will be no more than a standard geographic call and will be included in all inclusive minutes and discount schemes).Receive our national and regional press releases by RSS and get the latest headlines straight to your desktop the moment we publish them to our website. Choose to receive a national press feed or one of our regionalised feeds - go to www.highways.gov.uk/rssnews for more information.Issued on behalf of the Highways Agency by COI News and PR West Midlands. For further information members of the media can contact Joanna Kail on 0121 222 2637.Media enquiries out of hours should be made to the Highways Agency National Press Office on 020 7081 7443.