The “excellent calibre of candidates” in the Dundee area yesterday impressed contractors looking to recruit personnel for a major Scottish road-building project.
A recruitment open day for a northern section of the £745 million Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route was held at the Apex City Quay Hotel.
A consortium of Balfour Beatty, Carillion and Morrison Construction have preferred bidder status for the 58km Balmedie to Tipperty stage of the project, due to start next month.
The road-builders held the event to assess the quality of personnel available in the Dundee area for recruitment in the event of the formal contract being signed.
They are looking for professional, skilled and semi-skilled workers for the two and three-lane dual-carriageway with 12 new junctions, 22km of slip roads, 39km of side roads and accesses and more than 150 structures.
Yvonne Gilfillan, corporate social responsibility manager for the project, said: “We have been busy in Dundee and have had a very positive response across all the disciplines of skills that will be needed.
“We have been very impressed by the excellent calibre of students from the colleges and universities in this area, as well as by the experienced construction personnel who have come along.
“We have taken details of the candidates and would look to follow these up and arrange interviews with a view to recruitment in the event of the main contract being agreed.
“The Aberdeen Western Peripheral Project will bring major economy benefits to the whole of the north-east of Scotland, and we would be delighted to extend these benefits to the entire area by recruiting personnel from Dundee, Angus and Fife.”
The Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route and the A9 dualling are the two biggest road-building projects in Scotland.
Europe’s oil capital and Scotland’s third biggest city has major traffic congestion problems, and the peripheral route is a vital road link to relieve pressure on the often gridlocked Anderson Drive ring road.
Last month Scottish Transport Minister Keith Brown, now the Infrastructure Secretary, announced another £70m of sub-contracts, which he said would mark the final steps prior to the construction of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route/Balmedie-Tipperty scheme.
He continued: “Over the next three decades our investment in the project is expected to bring in an additional £6 billion to the north-east economy.
“It will also create around 14,000 new jobs, with the intention to create more than 1,000 jobs for the construction phase, including on-the-job training for apprentices and local employment opportunities.
“A wide range of construction jobs will also be on offer in the coming months.”
The Balmedie to Tipperty section north of Aberdeen is expected to be completed in the spring of 2018.
When finished, the entire route is expected to carry more than 43,000 vehicles each day through its busiest sections.