Re Contract

Balfour Beatty PLC
18 March 2004


18 March 2004

                      BALFOUR BEATTY AWARDED £171 MILLION
                     A46 NEWARK TO WIDMERPOOL ECI CONTRACT
                     =====================================

Balfour Beatty, the international engineering, construction and services group,
announces today that its subsidiary, Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering, has been
awarded the £171 million A46 Newark to Widmerpool dualling improvement scheme in
Nottinghamshire by the Highways Agency under an Early Contractor Involvement
(ECI) design and build contract. This is the fourth such contract which has been
let to Balfour Beatty by the Agency.

Commenting today, Balfour Beatty Chief Executive, Mike Welton, said: 'We are
delighted to have been selected to work with the Highways Agency on a further
important upgrade to the UK's major road system. Early progress on our other
major ECI schemes at Stonehenge and Hindhead is good and we look forward to
another successful partnership for the A46.'

Highways Agency Chief Executive, Archie Robertson, said: 'The A46 is part of the
core trunk road network providing a strategic link between the M1 and the A1 in
the East Midlands. This upgrade will improve safety, traffic flows and benefit
the region's economy. This scheme will complement the recently dualled stretch
from Newark to Lincoln, which was opened last summer.'

The A46 forms part of the Bath to Lincoln trunk road and is an important key
road corridor for long and medium distance traffic travelling from Leicester.
The proposed improvements are for the 17-mile route between Newark and
Widmerpool.

The ECI contract is a Highways Agency innovation, which involves the contractor
much earlier in the life of the scheme to prepare the design and assist with the
statutory processes ready for the publication of draft Legal Orders and an
Environmental statement. It facilitates the process of addressing environmental
impacts at an early stage and builds in cost-effective innovation before the
scheme is fixed.

Construction is expected to start in 2007 and take two years to complete,
following the development of the detailed design proposal and assisting with the
statutory processes.

                                      ENDS

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


Notes to Editors
----------------

1. Balfour Beatty is already working on three ECI schemes. These are the A303
Stonehenge project, currently valued at £150 million, which will take road
traffic away from the world's most famous ancient monument; the £132 million A3
project at Hindhead, which will unblock the main bottleneck on the A3 route from
London to the South Coast ports; and the £34 million A1 Bramham to Wetherby
upgrading scheme.

2. Balfour Beatty began work in January 2004 on the £148 million scheme to widen
the M25 between junctions 12 and 15 and to build a new spur road for Heathrow's
new Terminal 5.

3. Balfour Beatty is a leader in UK road maintenance with long-term contracts
for the maintenance of Highways Agency Areas 2, 3 and 4 across southern England
and for local authorities in North Yorkshire, Hampshire, Worcestershire and
Bedfordshire amongst others.




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