Contractor for £116m busway plan

Firm Edmund Nuttall has experience of building busways

Plans for a multi-million pound guided busway for Cambridgeshire are set to move a step closer with the construction contract being awarded.

The 25km guideway along the disused St Ives to Cambridge railway line would link Huntingdon and Cambridge.

The government is providing £92m towards the cost of the £116m scheme.

On 11 July, Cambridgeshire County Council is being asked to award the contract to engineering firm Edmund Nuttall, which is based in Surrey.

The firm has already constructed a guided busway in Crawley, Sussex.

The aim is that 20,000 passengers a day use the busway

The council's cabinet committee is also being asked to confirm its continued support for the scheme, which aims to ease congestion on the A14.

It is hoped 20,000 passengers a day will use the busway.

A report to the cabinet says Edmund Nuttall has been selected on the basis of the "quality of their proposals for constructing the guideway" and the firm also "offered the lowest priced tender".

The council says it has been talking to four bus firms which have expressed an interest in using the busways - Stagecoach, Whippet, Cavalier (Huntingdon and District), and Whippet.

The work on the guided routes is likely to be completed by the end of 2008.