First Minister confirms launch of contract tender for Tomatin-Moy section of the A9

The tendering process has been launched for the Tomatin to Moy section while the A96 looks like it is at severe risk as First Minister Humza Yousaf delivers his Programme for Government.

Promises to dual the road were renewed in the First Minister’s Programme for Government – as they have been since the SNP first made the promise in 2007 – but there was no further details on when or how that may happen.

What is certain is that the tendering process for Tomatin to Moy has been relaunched – the original process was deemed a failure due to the high costs of the contracts offered.

There was not much new on the A9 dualling programme beyond the promises to deliver it and the Inverness to Nairn section in full but it does appear that the A96 has been downgraded as now only “improvements” are promised.

The Programme for Government claimed that “we are a government for the whole of Scotland” citing the Green Freeport in Inverness and Cromarty and remains “fully committed to dualling the A9 between Inverness and Perth”.

But it goes on to say that commitment now only extends to “making improvements to the A96, including dualling Inverness to Nairn and the Nairn Bypass, and we will publish the review of the A96 Dualling Programme following the public engagement last year.”

That will be greeted with enormous hostility by many people in Moray and Grampian as well as the Highlands who have to regularly travel the road between Inverness and Aberdeen.

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