Completion date for A9 section upgrade delayed until 2028

A visualisation of junction improvements as part of Tomatin-Moy A9 upgrade

A project to upgrade a stretch of the A9 south of Inverness to dual carriageway is not due to be completed until 2028, Transport Scotland has said.

It had previously been expected that the six-mile (10km) stretch between Tomatin and Moy would be finished by the end of 2027.

Transport Scotland said it was now due to be operational in spring 2028 after its contractor warned that additional time would be needed because of the impact of weather and environmental restrictions around working in rivers and streams.

The Scottish government agency said this would not affect the expected completion of the overall Inverness to Perth dualling project, which is due by the end of 2035.

The Scottish government has awarded Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering a contract worth almost £185m to upgrade the Tomatin to Moy stretch.

It was forced to retender the work last year after only one contractor showed interest in the job.

Preparatory work is expected to start this month ahead of the start of main construction work early next year.

Transport Scotland said overnight traffic management measures could be in place from early November for six weeks.

This would involve two-way traffic signals with a temporary speed restriction of 30mph throughout the works.

Further information will be published on the A9 dualling website.

'No let up'

In December last year, then Transport Secretary Mairi McAllan said completion of the overall £3bn A9 dualling project had been delayed by 10 years until 2035.

She said a new rolling programme of improvements was "achievable" and there would be "no let up" in the work.

Two sections of single carriageway totalling 11 miles (18km) of road have been upgraded over the past decade.

But 77 miles (124km) of the route has still to be dualled.

When completed, the new Tomatin to Moy section will provide about 20 miles (33km) of continuous dual carriageway between Inverness and Slochd.

Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop said: "News that the main construction works on the Tomatin to Moy section will start in spring is welcome and I am pleased that Balfour Beatty is pressing ahead with these preparatory works."

Scottish Conservative transport spokesman Douglas Lumsden said: “It is appalling brass neck from Fiona Hyslop to paint this further delay to the A9 dualling programme as progress.

“The SNP are already a decade behind schedule in upgrading this lifeline road, and yet they continue to drag their heels.

“It is completely unacceptable that motorists who rely on Scotland’s deadliest road continue to be treated with contempt by the SNP Government.”