Balfour Beatty has won a £77.6m contract from the UK Highway Agency for the M4 / M5 managed motorways scheme near Bristol.

The company will use variable mandatory speed limits and open the hard shoulder as an extra traffic lane on the M4 between junctions 19 and 20, and the M5 between junctions 15 and 17.

The scheme will reduce congestion on the motorway as well as make it more reliable

Work on the project is expected to start between January and March 2012 and will be completed by 2013-14.

The UK Government is planning to start work on 11 managed motorway schemes by 2015.