Six contractors have been appointed to a £35m civil engineering framework for Scottish Canals.

Works involved are expected to include bridges, culverts, retaining walls, reservoirs, towpaths, buildings, embankments, and cuttings.

The selected contractors are:

• John Graham Construction
• Land Engineering
• Mackenzie Construction
• Covanburn Contracts
• Douglas Kynoch Drainage Contractor
• Morgan Sindall.

As well as the waterways themselves, Scottish Canals care for 251 bridges, 212 buildings, 256 locks, The Falkirk Wheel and 19 water supply reservoirs in locations across Scotland.

In a separate move, Scottish Canals’ own in-house dredging team has invested £250,000 in new machinery to help carry out a dredging and weed cutting along its waterways. Bringing the work in-house is expected save around £50,000 per year on contractor costs.

The investment follows the completion of a knowledge transfer partnership (KTP) between Scottish Canals and the University of Strathclyde to generate additional income from finding innovative new uses for the waste materials generated by dredging which included turning it into building materials or feedstock for producing bio gas.