Costain leads race for £130m road deal

Costain is setting the pace in the race for a two-in-one Highways Agency (HA) deal in the South East totalling more than £130m.

Sources said that the HA is focusing its attentions on the firm for the A2/A282 Dartford improvement (valued at £75.5m) and the M25 widening at Junctions 1b-3 (worth £56.3m).

An insider told CJ: “In line with current practice, instead of calling all the bidders to a meeting, the HA now carries out reality checks with its favoured firm – and in this case it looks like Costain. But if the checks don’t stack up, then the HA will approach one or more of the other bidders.”

The HA also shortlisted Amec, Laing O’Rourke, Edmund Nuttall and a joint venture of Balfour Beatty/Skanska to price the job. The HA is expected to officially announce the identity of its preferred bidder around the middle of next month.

The A2/A282 part of the deal will be first off the blocks and work will commence on site in December.

A source said: “That may seem early for an ECI job, but a lot of the design work has already been done – the Dartford scheme first surfaced around 1997.”