Balfour’s hat-trick at the top

Balfour Beatty enjoyed a third month at the top of the CJ50 chart in October, with a contracts haul of more than £490m. The rest of the top 10 saw plenty of movement and even a new entrant, one of 14 across the table.

The civils sector saw the most activity in October, gaining £653m of the £2,302m total, compared to just £203m in September. The public and commercial sectors were also buoyant.

Balfour’s biggest award, in joint venture with Carillion, was the £363m Transport for London contract to create the new East London rail line between Dalston Junction in the north and West Croydon in the south.

The project, which is the first of two phases, is scheduled for completion in late 2010, in time for the Olympics. Construction works will begin in early 2007, and will involve railway works, including track, signalling, telecommunications and electrification, and major civil engineering works, including the construction of two large new bridges, new stations and a new depot at New Cross Gate.

In second place, up from 11th in September, was Carillion, whose October total did not include the East London Line contract. It did declare two £21m schools projects in Scotland for Education 4 All, in which Carillion has an equity stake. It also announced three military developments, including a £153.9m project for Eastbury Park. This will involve a mixture of refurbishment and new build of both residential and non-residential buildings. Construction is phased over a five-year period.

Kier was up three places to take third, with a total of 233 contracts valued at nearly £115m, mostly in the housing and public sectors.
Steady in fourth was Norwest Holst, whose most significant win was a £35m student accommodation contract at Brunel University’s Uxbridge campus. The centrepiece of the project, known as phase six, is to provide 1,400 units of accommodation with shared kitchens.

The biggest climb of the month went to HBG Construction, which leapt from 31st place to fifth thanks to several large contracts, including two schools, for Leeds City Council and Park Craigmillar, and a £15.5m contract with UBS Global Asset Management for the refurbishment and extension of the Kingsway shopping centre in Newport.

Laing O’Rourke fell three places to sixth, with exactly £100m of work to report. The bulk of this was the building works for Crest Nicholson’s The Atrium, a £130m mixed-use scheme in Camberley town centre.

Galliford Try climbed 14 places to seventh, largely thanks to the inclusion of the huge £80m Whitelee Wind Farm project for Scottish Power at Eaglesham Moor, south of Glasgow. Work on Europe’s biggest onshore windfarm will begin immediately is expected to last for three years.

It covers approximately 5,500ha and will include the construction of 140 turbine bases and 90km of access roads. The work will be carried out by Galliford’s Morrison Construction business in joint venture with Balfour Kilpatrick.

The contract helped push Galliford from 12th to 10th position in the cumulative 12-month table. It was also a new entrant, in eighth place, in the civils sector table.

In at eight was Wates, with a busy month in the public sector. Projects included a £21.5m school for Surrey County Council, and £22.5m to rebuild the infirmary at the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

The highest new entrant, in ninth position, was rising star Apollo Group, which boasted two substantial London housing contracts for Greenwich Council and the Peabody Trust, valued at £40m and £23m respectively. It also secured £11m of roads work for Bedfordshire County Council.

Up eight places to round off the top 10 was Skanska, with more than £70m of work spread over 13 contracts. The contractor maintained its position in second place in the cumulative 12-month table, behind Balfour Beatty and just ahead of Carillion.