The Government's Keynesian response to the financial crisis has seen Britain's biggest road construction group Balfour Beatty get a £400 million Christmas present.

The Highways Agency has been told to speed up one of the country's major road-building contracts - the reworking of the A46 linking the East and West Midlands.

Balfour said today that the A46 Newark to Widmerpool project in Nottinghamshire has been identified for accelerated delivery under the Government's fiscal stimulus package.

The project to design and construct a new 18-mile two-lane dual carriageway will start early next year and involve major roadworks in the area until the end of 2011.

But there can be no guarantees the project might not be delayed - by archaeologists. The A46 is the Roman Fosse Way linking the ancient cities of Lincoln, Bath and Exeter. The last time they dug up the A46 near Newark they found Roman remains.

The A46 is regarded as a major strategic road link cutting across the A1, the M1, the M6, the M40 and the M4 on its route from the North-East to the South-West.

However, around Newark the road retains much of the qualities of a major artery of Roman Britain: straight but dangerously undulating.