Arbroath A Place for Everyone
Framework: SCAPE Scotland Civil Engineering Framework
Client: Angus Council
Location: Arbroath, Angus
Value: £13.2m (overall scheme budget)
Sector: Public Realm
Completion: October 2025
“The project aligns closely with Angus Council and Scottish Government priorities, including tackling climate change, promoting health and wellbeing, improving accessibility, supporting tourism and strengthening town centre regeneration. It also contributes to Angus Council’s wider ambitions to expand active travel infrastructure across the region. In addition to its long-term social and environmental benefits, the project provided a significant economic boost, contributing more than £5.6 million to the local economy and supporting local businesses and suppliers throughout delivery.”
Councillor Tommy Stewart
Communities Convener, Angus Council
Arbroath A Place for Everyone is a transformational active travel and public realm project designed to reconnect Arbroath town centre, transport links, tourism destinations and the coastline through improved walking, wheeling and cycling infrastructure.
Delivered for Angus Council by Balfour Beatty through the SCAPE Scotland Civil Engineering Framework, the scheme converted a historically divisive A92 corridor into a safer, more accessible and attractive route, supporting town centre regeneration, health and wellbeing, tourism, biodiversity and local economic benefit.
Alongside the physical works, Balfour Beatty delivered an impactful programme of community benefits, education, employability, volunteering and local legacy activity.
The project was required to address the historic severance created by the A92 dual carriageway through Arbroath, which separated the high street, public transport hubs, seafront and tourism destinations.
Following on from the outputs of a community-led charette, Angus Council, Sustrans and Arcadis identified the need to improve junctions and traffic flow, make better use of green spaces, develop path networks between the railway station, bus station and town centre, improve access for people walking, cycling, wheeling or using mobility scooters, and create a safer, more attractive and vibrant place for everyone.
The aim was to deliver a high-quality active travel route along the A92 while maintaining capacity on the local road network. The works created approximately 2 km of segregated cycle track, introduced new signalised junctions, improved side and main junctions, delivered public realm hard and soft landscaping, and realigned Guthrie Roundabout for a single-carriageway approach.
A key challenge was maintaining traffic flow, business continuity and stakeholder relationships while transforming a busy A92 corridor through central Arbroath.
The project converted approximately 2km of existing 40mph dual carriageway into an active travel route, reducing the road to a single 30 mph carriageway and repurposing redundant carriageway space for walking, cycling and widened green infrastructure.
The team prioritised early and ongoing engagement, including weekly stakeholder meetings to review traffic-management proposals, understand local needs and refine solutions.
This collaborative approach reduced anticipated temporary traffic signal closures from 44 weeks to fewer than four weeks, helping maintain traffic flows and minimise disruption.
Regular letter drops, coordinated media releases, updates through the council website and direct engagement with local businesses provided clear information throughout delivery and helped maintain stakeholder confidence.
The project delivered a major regeneration intervention for Arbroath, creating enhanced walking, wheeling and cycling routes, accessible public spaces and a revitalised seafront intended to encourage wider community use and reconnect key areas of the town.
The physical works included approximately 2km of segregated cycle track, three new signalised junctions, seven side-junction improvements, three main-junction improvements with landscaped areas, extensive public realm hard and soft landscaping, and a reconfigured Guthrie Roundabout.
Strong collaboration between Balfour Beatty, Angus Council and wider stakeholders supported delivery ahead of schedule, under budget and with minimal disruption. The scheme provided a significant economic boost, contributing more than £5.6m to the local economy while supporting suppliers and businesses. It also created a safer, more accessible and attractive town centre linking transport hubs, tourism destinations and the coastline.
Social value initiatives
The project exceeded or achieved its agreed social impact targets across education, employability, work placement, donations and volunteering.
Recorded outcomes include:
- 136.5 staff hours supporting school and college visits
- 40 hours of support-into-work assistance
- Six weeks of meaningful work placements
- £5,152.60 of donations and in-kind contributions
- 65 volunteering hours
- Completion data also recorded local spend of £2.2m, SME spend of £4.5m and 45% local labour
Delivery highlights included upgrades to Douglaswood Scout Centre and volunteering at Arbroath Courthouse Community Trust. The project also included donations of children’s PPE to Little Leapers Nursery; supporting STEM festivals across Angus primary schools; and delivering an interactive insight into stonemasonry and the historically significant ‘Arbroath Stone’, delivered with Dundee and Angus College learning at Denfind Stone. In addition, Balfour Beatty provided work placements for Arbroath High School pupils and supported an Afghan Resettlement Growing Project with Arbroath Rotary Club.
Sustainability credentials
The scheme encourages active travel, improves accessibility and makes better use of Arbroath’s green spaces. It strengthens links from the railway and bus stations to the town centre, reallocates road space while maintaining traffic flow, and improves access for people walking, cycling, wheeling or using mobility scooters.
Environmental benefits include dedicated coastal-style planting, specimen trees, strengthened biodiversity, high-quality materials and interactive play/art features.
The project’s social sustainability legacy was reinforced through education and community engagement. More than 20 STEM career events were supported across Angus primary schools, including sustainability workshops, engineering challenges and demonstrations using surveying equipment and construction tools.
“I’m pleased to see the completion and opening of this significant and innovative investment in Arbroath, reflecting the Scottish Government’s ongoing commitment to making it safer and easier for people to walk, wheel and cycle for everyday journeys. These improvements are already making a real difference to how people move around the town, while also supporting a more attractive and accessible town centre that benefits local businesses and communities. With over £10 million of Scottish Government funding as part of a wider £15 million investment, this work demonstrates how sustained investment can transform places and improve everyday journeys for people across Scotland.”
Stephen Flynn
Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Tourism and Transport, Scottish Government
Why SCAPE Scotland?
What did the SCAPE Scotland framework bring to the project?
The SCAPE Scotland framework provided a structured and compliant route for delivery, reporting and performance management. Monthly reporting covered progress against project KPIs and the National TOMs selected by Angus Council, creating transparency between Balfour Beatty, Angus Council and SCAPE Scotland. This approach strengthened community-benefit evidence, performance reporting and case study development, with achievement against performance and community-benefit targets reported.
What were the benefits of using SCAPE Scotland?
The key benefits were early collaboration, clear community-benefit expectations, structured performance reporting and a strong focus on demonstrating added value beyond construction delivery. The framework supported delivery of the physical active travel route and capture of wider outcomes, including school engagement, employability activity, volunteering, donations, SME spend, local labour and case study evidence. Collaborative working between Balfour Beatty, Angus Council and stakeholders also contributed to delivery ahead of schedule, under budget and with minimal disruption.
Social value outcomes
This project has been submitted by Balfour Beatty as part of the collaborative Social Value in Construction Benchmarking Report. This report captures the latest insights into the regional and national trends in social value delivery; learn more here.
136.5 hours
supporting school and college visits
40 hours
of support-into-work assistance
6 weeks
of meaningful work placements
£5,152.60
of donations and in-kind contributions
65 hours
of volunteering
In collaboration with:
Meet the lead:
Rachel Park
Senior Framework Manager
Project gallery
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Benchmarking Report
SCAPE's annual report in collaboration with Social Value Portal that captures the latest insight into the regional and national trends in social value delivery.