Obama fever to lift Balfour Beatty, Keller and Ashtead

President elect Obama is expected to pledge to unleash the biggest infrastructure spend since Roosevelt's New Deal of 1933 in his inaugural address today.

Balfour Beatty, Keller and Ashtead are expected to be the main UK beneficiaries of the economic stimulus, according to investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort.

Speculation about the size of the economic stimulus has spiralled upwards from mere hundreds of billions to over a trillion dollars.

In coming weeks the American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill will be brought before Congress with the aim of creating or saving 3 to 4 million jobs.

To date $550bn in infrastructure investments and $275bn of tax cuts have already been earmarked, including a programme to modernise roads, bridges, railways and waterways, as well as raise energy efficiency and education standards.

For transport this includes:

• $30bn for highway construction.
• $31bn to modernise federal and other public infrastructure with investments that lead to long term energy cost savings.
• $19bn for clean water, flood control, and environmental restoration investments.
• $10bn for transit and rail to reduce traffic congestion and gas consumption.