The 50/50 joint venture will supply and lay more than 500,000 tonnes of asphalt material for the works, which are being constructed by AWPR Construction Joint Venture on behalf of Aberdeen Roads Limited.

The AWPR/B-T is the longest roads construction project currently under construction in the UK, extending from Stonehaven in the south to Tipperty in the north and comprising 55 kilometres of dual carriageway, 22 kilometres of slip roads and 39 kilometres of side roads and accesses.

Breedon and Whitemountain will each erect a mobile asphalt plant on site to service the project, utilising aggregates sourced from the locality. They will also supply any offsite aggregate and sand requirements for the asphalt products and high PSV aggregates for the surface course of the main carriageway.

Alan Mackenzie, chief executive of Breedon Aggregates Scotland, said: “We’re proud to be playing our part in bringing this hugely important infrastructure project to fruition. It will remove one of the most notorious bottlenecks in the country and deliver significant benefits to the local economy.

“This is our largest-ever contract award and will provide the backbone of work for our contracting division over the next two years. Importantly, the two mobile plants will mean we’re self-sufficient on-site.

“We look forward to working with our JV partner, Whitemountain, to provide an outstanding service on the AWPR/B-T between now and completion of the surfacing works over the next couple of years.”

Whitemountain managing director, Mark Kelly, added: “We are delighted to be working with Breedon in the joint delivery of such a major infrastructure project, which will no doubt be of significant benefit to the region.”