Costain tops December league table with HS2 work

A single mammoth contract for HS2 work propelled Costain to the top of December’s league table, according to construction industry data specialist Glenigan.

Work will begin in the first quarter of the year on the £400m job to deliver critical lineside mechanical and electrical systems for the high-speed rail link.

The seven-year contract, with optional extensions, was the biggest deal for civils work in December as the majority of new business signed off last month was for building work, the Glenigan data shows.

Mace, which topped the November table, dropped out of the top 50 altogether.

Kier secured second spot with 10 contracts worth £174.7m including a £42m accommodation block scheme for the Royal Marines in Plymouth.

The tier one contractor also landed an office scheme in Birmingham. Kier got the green light at the start of the month for the 10-storey Arena Central development at 5 Centenary Square.

Seven contracts worth £127.9m secured third place for Galliford Try. Among them were two London-based deals worth a combined £87m.

One contract award was for a luxury retail development in Sloane Street and the other will see the contractor build a 12,400 square metre facility for Big Yellow Self Storage in Wapping, east London.

Wates took fourth place with £92m of new work, including the £60m One Globe Square office scheme in Leeds. Morgan Sindall came in fifth with £79.6m.

Robertson picked up deals worth a combined £77.5m, which was enough to secure sixth spot on the table.

The firm’s biggest announcement in December was a partnership with Aberdeen City Council to deliver a beachfront masterplan worth £50m.

Bowmer & Kirkland landed two jobs worth a combined £67.2m to take seventh place. Royal Bam also agreed a pair of projects, and with a total value of £60.6m, it was enough for eighth spot.

Walter Lily finished December in ninth place with a single £60m job, ahead of John Sisk & Son with two contracts, including the £54m refurbishment of Haringey Civic Centre.

With its final flurry of activity for 2024, Morgan Sindall finished the year at the top of the rolling annual league table with a whopping £3.1bn in new business.

This was secured from 285 contracts – the majority of which were for build jobs.

Taking second place was Winvic with a total £2.17bn of deals achieved from only 35 deals.

Confirming that volume is not everything, Multiplex finished in third place with £1.68bn secured from just five jobs.

Galliford Try picked up 135 jobs in 2024 worth £1.67bn, leaving it in fourth place ahead of Royal Bam’s 46 contracts worth a combined £1.4bn.