BAM Ritchies will undertake the contract totalling nearly £3 million for the Crubenmore to Kincraig stretch while Raeburn Drilling & Geotechnical Ltd was awarded a £3.8m contract for the Pitlochry to Glen Garry stretch.

Work is due to get underway from the end of August.

Keith Brown, cabinet secretary for economy, jobs and fair work, said: “The A9 Dualling programme between Perth and Inverness is one of the largest and most challenging infrastructure projects in Scotland’s history and we will shortly be starting further vital ground investigations that will support the ongoing design work.

“These latest significant ground investigation contracts will help inform the design work for three of the sections to be dualled – Crubenmore to Kincraig, Pitlochry to Killiecrankie and Killiecrankie to Glen Garry – in total around 27 miles of the route.

“Over the next few months some of this work will take place on or near the live carriageway. In order to ensure the safety of both road workers and road users we will need to introduce traffic management arrangements.

“Road users and local communities will be kept informed of our plans and we will endeavour to ensure that any disruption is kept to a minimum, recognising that there are on-going construction works between Kincraig and Dalraddy.

“Work on that section is progressing well and is expected to be completed this summer.”

Details of the A9 Dualling programme can be found here.