Meeting of the Parliament 08 February 2023
I thank Mr Ewing for his question and I recognise his strength of feeling about the A9, in particular, but also about the A96, which is in his constituency. We have met, in his constituency and in Parliament, to discuss the A9 and the A96 on a number of occasions. I am keen to work with the member on supporting his interests and those of other interested MSPs, because it is important that we get the next steps right.
I have outlined to members some of the challenges that we have faced in recent times. We had keen interest at the industry event days when the tender for Tomatin to Moy was first launched, and that was positive. At the beginning of the procurement process, three contractors pre-qualified for the bid. One of those withdrew early in the process, and another withdrew on the day before tenders were due for submission, which meant that only one tender was submitted. As I mentioned in response to Ms Roddick, Transport Scotland’s design and build works contract has been used for more than 20 years.
Some of Mr Ewing’s points are fair and they will all be considered in the wider work on how we move forward at pace on the totality of the sections of the route on which dualling remains outstanding.
As I mentioned in response to one of the Conservative members, there has been a decline in the number of tenders that are coming forward, so we need to look at the approach that we use in Transport Scotland. That will be addressed fundamentally as part of the wider advice that will come to ministers in the autumn, to ensure that, going forward, we have the best approach in Transport Scotland to attract the highest possible numbers of bids in order to deliver the programme as efficiently and timeously as possible.