Costain has been appointed to design and build a new junction on the M5 motorway in Somerset, which will give critical access to the UK’s biggest electric vehicle battery manufacturing facility.

Junction 22A is being constructed between Burnham-On-Sea and Bridgwater and  will provide access to the Gravity Smart Campus where the £4bn gigafactory is being developed by Agratas.

Awarded through the Regional Delivery Partnership (RDP) framework, the contract is worth approximately £100m to Costain over a five-year period.

The junction will consist of north facing slip roads and will alleviate congestion on the motorway south of the Huntspill river.

Costain’s role as the project’s delivery integration partner and main works contractor will see it design and construct the new junction before handing it over to National Highways upon completion. WSP will support Costain as design partner.

Alex Vaughan, chief executive officer of Costain, said: “This award is built on our long-established highways delivery expertise and trusted partner relationship with National Highways. We will work closely with our supply chain partners to design and deliver this new junction that will provide access to the new gigafactory and help to drive economic growth in this region of the UK.

 “This investment, supporting the UK’s growth ambitions, is another example of Costain’s commitment to deliver critical national infrastructure programmes that improve people’s lives.”

Costain is a long-term partner to National Highways and last year completed the construction of 41 emergency areas on the M1 ahead of schedule. Costain is also providing specialist technical engineering advice to National Highways under its Specialist Professional and Technical Services Framework (SPaTS3), which will cover the whole of the period for Roads Investment Strategy 3 (2026-2031).

The infrastructure solutions company is also National Highways’ delivery partner for the M60/M62/M66 Simister Island Interchange scheme. In addition, Costain was recently added to join the Eastern Highways Alliance’s EH4 Framework, covering a range of civil engineering and construction works across the East of England.