Scots road work secures 100 jobs

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A £320m contract to upgrade a Scottish motorway will secure 100 Northern Ireland construction jobs, one of the firms involved has said.

Farrans and Graham are part of Highway Management (Scotland) Ltd, which is to upgrade an 11-mile stretch of the A80 between Glasgow and Stirling.

The work is expected to be finished by 2011 and create more than 500 jobs.

Farrans Joint Managing Director, Eamonn Sweeney, said it would secure 100 Northern Ireland construction jobs.

"This is one of the largest road projects ever to be let in Scotland and the involvement of two of Northern Ireland's premier contractors is yet another example of the level of expertise available in the province to construct projects of international standards," he said.

The upgrade work includes almost five miles of new two-lane motorway and hard shoulders between Stepps and Mollinsburn, 1.6 miles of three-lane motorway between Mollinsburn and Auchenkilns, and almost 4.5 miles of two-lane motorway between Auchenkilns and Haggs.

The Highway Management (Scotland) Ltd consortium, also comprises Bilfinger Berger, one of the contractors working on the Westlink upgrade in Belfast.