Transport Scotland has announced the award of a £213,000 ground investigation contract to Environmental Reclamation Services (ERS) Ltd.

The work is programmed to start early next month and is expected to be on site for a period of seven weeks.

Transport minister Humza Yousaf said: “The Scottish Government is committed to tackling the traffic bottleneck at Haudagain which has caused congestion, tailbacks and delays for motorists using the A90 and A96 for many years.

“Having published the final design  for the scheme in February, we are now about to start ground investigations which will provide the detailed information we need and will supplement the findings of previous ground investigation works in late 2014.

“We remain on target to start work at Haudagain once the AWPR is complete, currently scheduled to open in winter 2017/18. Once completed the Haudagain improvement scheme will bring much-needed relief for drivers and communities in the area.”