The Department for Regional Development’s Roads Service awarded the consortium of Lagan Construction, Ferrovial Agroman and Costain Ltd the contract to design and construct the upgrade to the A8 carriageway between Belfast and Larne. This brought together Costain’s expertise in ECI delivery on major highways schemes along with Lagan and Ferrovial’s joint experience in delivering highways schemes in Northern Ireland.
The A8 is a strategically important road linking the Port of Larne with Belfast and carrying in excess of 17,000 vehicles daily. The scheme involves upgrading over 14km of the A8 between the B94 near Ballyclare and the A36, south of the Port of Larne and includes online widening of the existing A8 carriageway and bypasses at the villages of Bruslee and Ballynure. Work also includes side road improvements, accommodation works, compact grade-separated junctions including the A57 Templepatrick Road and other works including overbridges and underpasses for local roads and watercourses and other associated highways works.