Re Contract

Balfour Beatty PLC
23 January 2003


BALFOUR BEATTY AWARDED NEW ROAD MANAGEMENT AND MAINTENANCE CONTRACT WORTH UP TO
                    £175 MILLION BY THE HIGHWAYS AGENCY


Balfour Beatty, the international engineering, construction and services group,
announces today that its specialist road management and maintenance subsidiary,
RCS, has been awarded the Managing Agent Contractor contract (MAC) for Highways
Agency Area 4, in joint venture with Mott MacDonald.

The Agency's Area 4 covers trunk roads and motorways mainly in Kent, East and
West Sussex and parts of Surrey and Hampshire.  The four-year contract, with an
option for a further three-year extension, will start on 1 June and has an
estimated annual value of £20-25 million.

Commenting on the award today, Balfour Beatty Chief Executive, Mike Welton,
said:  'We are delighted to have been selected for this innovative new contract
which marks a significant change in the way work on the trunk road network is
managed.  Together with our existing contracts for Areas 2 and 3, Balfour Beatty
now has responsibility for keeping some 1,300 miles of motorways and trunk roads
across the South of England running smoothly.'

The new MAC will take over the responsibilities of both the former managing
agents and term maintenance contractors.  Benefits include reducing overlap of
work, while also improving services to road users by enhancing safety and
tackling congestion.

Balfour Beatty, through RCS, is a leader in UK road management and maintenance.
In addition to its three Highways Agency maintenance contracts which have an
aggregate value in excess of £300 million, RCS has local authority road
maintenance contracts in Worcestershire, Bedfordshire, Surrey, Hampshire and
North Yorkshire.  In January of 2002, it re-won the Hampshire contract and won
for the first time North Yorkshire in multi-year contracts worth £25 million per
annum and £27 million per annum respectively.

RCS has a current order book of approximately £500 million.


Enquiries to:

Tim Sharp
Tel: [phone]
www.balfourbeatty.com


                      This information is provided by RNS
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