Costain confirms £397m win on long-awaited £3bn waste PFI deal

Costain has confirmed that it is to start work immediately on a £397m contract for Viridor Laing to design and build municipal waste treatment infrastructure after banks finally signed off on the delayed £3bn PFI programme.

There were fears that the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority's (GMWDA) five-year PFI waste and recycling contract - the largest municipal waste contract in Western Europe - was facing delays.

News that Costain had won the deal to build the waste treatment infrastructure originally broke in February last year and it was originally due to be completed in 2011.

The project comprises the design, construction and commissioning of a total of 44 different facilities spread across 26 locations, including:

• 25 household waste recycling centres, 16 of which are being completely redeveloped;
• 5 mechanical biological treatment plants (each approx 100,000 tonnes per annum);
• 4 in-vessel composting plants (each approx 44,000 tonnes per annum);
• 1 Material Recovery Facility (16 tonnes per hour);
• 7 Transfer Loading Stations; and
• 2 Green Waste facilities

Andrew Wyllie, Costain chief executive, commented:

"This is a major project win for Costain.  We have deliberately targeted the waste sector where we can leverage our complementary process engineering skills and expertise from our water operations.  We intend to build a major presence in this rapidly expanding UK and European regulated marketplace, and look forward to building the waste services business into one of Costain's leading divisions."