Wates lines up £6m job - Four eye £20m PFI deal - A46 upgrade up for grabs - Wrekin gets call from BT

Privately owned Wates Construction has secured work worth £6m at SmithKline Beecham's Nutritional Healthcare manufacturing facility at Coleford, Gloucestershire.

Wates will be building a 208m2 blending facility and a 269m2 bottling facility for the pharmaceuticals company.

The project team also consists of Walter W Green & Partners (QS); Wardell Armstrong (geotechnical/foundation engineers); and WS Atkins (project managers, M&E and structural engineers and planning supervisors). by Glenda Thisdell



North East Derbyshire Council has chosen a short list of bidders for its £20m Private Finance Initiative social housing scheme.

The council is one of four local authorities utilising the government's PFI programme for the repair and long-term maintenance of its social housing stock. North East Derbyshire is the second local council to have drawn up a short list. Manchester was the first; others following suit are Leeds and Sandwell.

On North East Derbyshire's list are: Carillion Construction in consortia with bankers Dexia, South Yorkshire Housing Association and Hunt Thompson Associates; Gleeson Construction in consortia with finance group King Sturge and Derwent Housing Association; and Lovell Partnership.

The scheme includes the repair or demolition of 725 defective council pre-cast reinforced concrete homes in the former pit villages of Danesmoor, North Wingfield and Pilsley.

"Many local authorities don't use this type of property. The three teams chosen have a proven track record in working with pre-cast reinforced concrete," said Bill Best of PFI consultants Barony Group, which is advising the council.

The winning team will also provide management, repairs and maintenance services on the properties for 30 years, for which the council will pay an annual service charge.

Teams will be invited to negotiate at the end of July; a design competition will follow. The council is aiming to have a preferred bidder chosen by November and achieve commercial and contractual close by May 2001. The highways Agency is to advertise this month for contractors for a £29m dual-carriageway scheme along a 13km stretch of the A46 from Newark to Lincoln.

The A46 is single-carriageway, but an increase in traffic means expansion is urgently required. It is not considered practical to improve the A46 through the village of Brough, so a new 2.5km section of dual carriageway will be built to bypass the village to the north.

Invitations to tender are due to go out in late August with a view to work starting during the next year. Approximate land take will be 47ha. BT has signed up privately owned Wrekin Construction to carry out civil engineering cable work and provide asset assurance for its network in Wales.

The four-year contract, worth about £64m, covers the management and installation of 250,000km of cable and ductwork each year. Wrekin has teamed up with Filcom, who will undertake the cable and polling work. The contract will run until 2004, with an option for BT to extend the contract for a further four years. Wrekin has worked with BT since 1988 and already provides BT with a 24-hour, year-round service in and around Wales.

BT has been able to benchmark the Shropshire firm's performance, according to Wrekin managing director John Evans. The new contract guarantees the firm a more consistent flow of work.

BT has divided the country into regions and is offering term contracts to civil contractor and cable firm teams.