The long-awaited dualling of the north’s busiest road is gathering pace as transport chiefs prepare to start work on the latest 12-mile section.
A £1.5million project to dual the A9 in two phases from Glen Garry to Dalwhinnie and Dalwhinnie to Crubenmore is due to begin this month.
Ground investigation work will be carried out over a 12 week period, with a break over Christmas and New year.
The scheme is part of the Scottish Government’s £3billion work to upgrade of 80 miles of single carriageway along the A9 between Perth and Inverness by 2025.
A ground investigation contract for the next two phases has been awarded to Raeburn Drilling and Geotechnical Ltd, it was announced yesterday.
Drivers on the route have been warned that traffic management arrangements would be put in place over the next few months as the work is carried out.
Economy Secretary Keith Brown said: “The A9 dualling programme between Perth and Inverness is one of the largest and most challenging infrastructure projects in Scotland’s history and building on the vital ground investigation work over the summer, this latest ground investigation contract will help inform the design work for two of the sections to be dualled on the central section of the route, totalling over 12 miles.”
“We are also pressing ahead with the design work for the programme and are holding a series of public engagement events over the next few weeks to let locals and road users view our proposals.
“I would encourage anyone with an interest to come along to the exhibitions to view our plans and comment on them.
“Hand-in-hand with the design work, we are continuing the construction works with the first stretch of new road in the programme between Kincraig and Dalraddy now in use and the new dualled section expected to be complete in summer 2017.”
A series of public engagement events are planned throughout this month on the project.
Meanwhile, on Monday and Tuesday public exhibitions will be held at Strathdearn Village Hall in Tomatin to give residents the chance to view proposals for the Tomatin to Moy section of the A9 dualling.
The section, which is the most northerly to be dualled in the project, is just over five miles in length and will plug the gap between the existing dual carriageways from Inverness to Moy and Tomatin to the Slochd Summit.