THE contract for the £7 million improvement scheme to the Merrymeet junction on the A30 has been awarded to Interserve Project Services Ltd, with Parsons Brinckerhoff Ltd as the designer.

Transport Minister David Jamieson announced the contract this week and also confirmed that the two companies would be appointed to work on a £27 million bypass at Dobwalls in South East Cornwall.

The scheme at Merrymeet, between Okehampton and Exeter, which is due to start in the spring of 2005, will replace the roundabout with a new section of dual carriageway under the junction with slip roads to connect the A30 to side roads.

The long awaited improvement has been welcomed locally because the roundabout is a notorious blackspot.