Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering Ltd

M1 Junctions 6A -10 Widening

Employer's Agent: WSP
Designer: WS Atkins
Client: Highways Agency
Date of completion: 2008
Contract value: £241 million

Click here to view the M1 Junctions 6A-10 Flickr photostream 

The M1 is a strategic part of the network linking London with the Midlands and the North. It is used by 160,000 vehicles per day and is estimated to grow to 200,000 by 2023.

Balfour Beatty Major Civil Engineering was awarded the £241 million M1 Junctions 6A to 10 Widening Contract. This high profile scheme was let under the Highways Agency's Early Contractor Involvement with construction over a period of 147 weeks. The main works commenced mid March 2006 and the official opening ceremony took place on 23 January 2009.

Work has been carried out on both carriageways of the M1 between J6A and J10 to bring it up to a full standard four lane motorway with continuous hard shoulders. This was achieved by widening the following sections:

• Junctions 6A-7 southbound
• Junctions 8-9 northbound and southbound
• Junctions 9-10 southbound

The main compound was based at Junction 8 of the M1 where approximately 140 staff worked on site. One team was based at Junction 9 compound, with a third area at Junction 10. Materials were re-cycled at Junction 8 and Junction 10. A dedicated recovery unit was also based at Junction 8 where members of the travelling public, and their vehicles, were brought to after being recovered from the motorway by Saunders Vehicle Recovery.

Throughout the construction period the M1 team has been committed to meeting a number of challenges that ensured the safety of the public and their workforce. These included minimising the impact of the works on the local community; reducing delays to M1 users by keeping the traffic flowing at all times; and protecting the environment during construction.

A watchful eye was kept on the trafic 24 hours a day. The CCTV control room contained 36 cameras specially installed to ensure a fast recovery service. The average time taken to recover stranded vehicles was 26 minutes.

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