Ferrovial Construction has been awarded the contract to design and build the Norwich Western Link by Norfolk County Council.

Work will start on the contract immediately alongside the council’s existing project team to further develop the design of the Norwich Western Link, including the new 6.1 km dual carriageway road between the A47 and Broadland Northway and many of its associated measures. 

This work will feed into the pre-planning application public consultation, which is scheduled for the autumn, which in turn will inform the planning application for the project, due to be submitted in early 2022. Works will include 6.1 km of dual carriageway from A1270 to A47 including a new viaduct over the River Wensum, six structures for minor roads and environmental crossings. Construction is expected to complete in 2025 with a further three years of landscape maintenance. 

Martin Wilby, Norfolk County Council’s cabinet member for Highways and Infrastructure, said: “Ferrovial Construction have a great track record in designing and building large-scale infrastructure projects and will bring specialist expertise to the project, including in relation to the design of the viaduct across the River Wensum. 

“Creating the Norwich Western Link is a priority for this council and it’s vital to ensuring we have the right infrastructure in place to not only tackle existing congestion and delays but to accommodate future population and job growth. We’re looking forward to working with Ferrovial Construction to deliver such an important project for Norfolk.”  

Karl Goose, UK & Ireland Managing Director at Ferrovial Construction said: “We are delighted to have been selected to deliver the Norwich Western Link, a key project which forms part of the new sustainable growth strategy for the UK business. We will be bringing our expertise and experience at delivering highways projects in the UK, Ireland and around the world to provide Norfolk County Council and the region with a world-class piece of infrastructure. 

“We will be self-delivering this project with local teams, opening new opportunities for people in Norfolk and offering a gateway to STEM careers in the industry and sustainable career development paths for new and existing employees.”

Ferrovial Construction were the highest scoring bidder from a competitive procurement process for the project which began in summer 2020 and during which they began developing their proposals for the project. Their appointment followed a decision by the county council’s cabinet earlier this month to award the contract.

At the same meeting cabinet members also agreed to approve the outline business case for the Norwich Western Link and this has now been submitted to the Department for Transport. The business case demonstrated that the project would provide high value for money, significantly reduce many journey times to the west of Norwich, improve road safety and reduce carbon emissions from vehicles. If the outline business case is approved, this would provide a funding commitment from government which is expected to cover 85% of the £198m total project costs.