Contract

Balfour Beatty PLC
6 June 2000


BALFOUR BEATTY AWARDED £100 MILLION ALPTRANSIT TUNNEL PROJECT BY SBB-SWISS
RAILWAYS


Balfour Beatty, the international engineering, construction and services
group, announces today that it has been awarded, in joint venture, the SFr250
million (approximately £100 million) project to construct the Lotschberg base
tunnels as part of the AlpTransit project by SBB-Swiss Railways.

Balfour Beatty is already working on the SFr250 million Steg contract, part of
the same project, which was awarded in November 1999.

Commenting today, Balfour Beatty Chief Executive, Mike Welton, said:

'This further success in Switzerland demonstrates the strength of our
specialist expertise in tunnelling and our proven capabilities in complex
project management and execution on an international basis.'

The 35km long Lotschberg project forms part of the Bern-Lotschberg-Simplon,
AlpTransit railway axis for BLS AlpTransit AG, a subsidiary of Schweizerische
Bundesbahnen (SBB-Swiss Railways).

The large diameter tunnels will form a key route for freight between the EU
countries.  The scope of the works for the Raron contract, located to the
south and adjacent to the joint venture's Steg contract, comprises two running
tunnels from Raron towards Ferden, a crossover and cross passages.  The total
length to be tunnelled is 10.8km with 1.0km optional extensions for each
tunnel.  The 9.5m diameter tunnels will be driven mostly by hard rock TBM
(tunnel boring machine) with the remainder by drill and blast.

Balfour Beatty's partners in the project are Marti Holding AG, Walter Gruppe
and Porr PG.



Enquiries to:-
Tim Sharp
Balfour Beatty plc
Tel: [phone]
www.balfourbeatty.com