The £1.3 million (US$1.74 million) award includes integrated geotechnical and geophysical data collection along 23km of road corridor to inform the design work for two sections of dualling - Glen Garry to Dalwhinnie and Dalwhinnie to Crubenmore.

Due to start mid-December, the 26-week contract marks a return to challenging highland terrain within the project's central section through the Cairngorms.

A 12-week programme of site work will include 48 rotary boreholes to undertake 290m of coring and 334m of open-hole drilling, plus a further seven sonic boreholes for soil and rock coring to over 70m in depth. Fugro will also undertake almost 100 machine dug trial pits, geotechnical soil and rock testing, contamination testing, peat probing, wireline geophysics, surface geophysics, post fieldwork monitoring and reporting.

Geophysicists and geotechnical engineers from Fugro will be working closely to deliver the required data safely and efficiently to help Transport Scotland meet the dualling construction schedule.

Neale Davies, Fugro's estimating manager, said: "Fugro is delighted to have been awarded a third ground investigation on this prestigious project through some of Scotland's most picturesque mountain scenery. We look forward to continuing our close work with Transport Scotland and their engineer, CH2M Fairhurst Joint Venture, in order to meet, or even exceed, their expectations."

With its latest package, Fugro will have undertaken either preliminary or advanced site investigations across more than half of the overall 129km A9 dualling.

In 2015, Fugro completed award-winning ground investigations of superficial deposits and bedrock along a 46km section between the Pass of Birnam and Glen Garry. Specialist teams overcame difficult terrain and environmental protection challenges through resourceful choice of equipment and methodology that will also benefit the new contract.

Last year, Fugro carried out geotechnical work to characterise ground conditions for a 14.5km section from Tay Crossing to Killiecrankie within the project's southern section.

The Scottish Government's £3 billion dualling programme will see eleven sections of the A9 between Perth and Inverness upgraded to dual carriageway by 2025. The first completed stretch, some 7.5km between Kincraig and Dalraddy, was opened in September.