Balfour Beatty stays on top with £206m contract haul

Balfour Beatty retained top spot in the contractors’ league table last month, with a £206m contract haul that included a £50m job to build a new town centre scheme in Northwich.

Balfour Beatty topped the contractors’ league table, including civils, for the second month in a row in August, with the firm’s £206m haul comprising 19 projects, including a £75m road improvement job for the Highways Agency in Hull and the £49m job to build the Barons Quary cinema and retail complex in Northwich for Cheshire West and Chester council.

Bam Construction was one of the biggest movers last month, rising from 15th place in July to second spot in the league table, including civils, and top spot in the table excluding civils.

Bam’s £190m haul comprised 15 contracts and included a £27m job to build a student accommodation building on the King’s Cross development site for the Aga Khan Foundation.

Bam’s haul also included the £40m contract to build a series of schools in Hull, as part of the government’s Priority School Building Programme.

Overall the CPA/Barbour ABI construction index rose to 129 in August, only marginally up on 128 in July but still up 21% on the previous year.

The index, compiled by the Construction Products Association (CPA) using data from construction information provider Barbour ABI, measures contract awards and uses a January 2010 base of 100.

Noble Francis, CPA director, said that as the year progressed it was becoming “clearer that the recovery in construction is becoming more firmly entrenched”.

You’ll find interactive, sortable league tables of contract wins here: building.co.uk/barometer