Fugro Awarded Further Ground Investigation

Fugro has secured a second contract for ground investigations on Transport Scotland’s landmark project to dual the A9 between Perth and Inverness.

Worth in excess of £1.2M, the package of geotechnical investigations will characterise ground conditions along a 14.5 km section between Tay Crossing and Killiecrankie within the southern part of the dualling.

Under the 23-week contract, which has just started on site, Fugro will carry out exploratory drilling and sampling in soil and rock, in situ and laboratory testing and environmental monitoring.

The new award follows a £2.5M contract last year comprising broader geotechnical as well as environmental monitoring activity across 45km of the southern section between Birnam and Glen Garry.

Geotechnical specialists from Fugro’s UK offices will be mobilising boring and drilling rigs, and using offsite laboratory capabilities drawn from the company’s integrated global resources.

To accommodate the varying geology, a combination of cable percussive, sonic and rotary drilling techniques will be used, along with wireline logging to assess downhole properties. As with the previous contract, site logistics and methods are being carefully planned to meet complex access and traffic management challenges, with strict consideration for the local ecology and parkland environment.

The Scottish Government aims to dual 129 kilometres of the A9 between Perth and Inverness by 2025 at a cost of £3 billion in one of Scotland’s most challenging infrastructure projects to date.