Re Contract

Balfour Beatty PLC
5 October 2000


$179 MILLION ENGINEERING CONTRACTS AWARDED TO BALFOUR BEATTY IN THE USA
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Balfour Beatty, the international engineering, construction and services
group, announces today that its US engineering subsidiary, Balfour Beatty
Construction Inc, has been awarded three contracts to a total value of $179
million.

In Connecticut, Balfour Beatty has been awarded the $84 million Sikorsky
Bridge contract by the Connecticut Department of Transportation, subject to
final grant of permits.  The project is for the reconstruction of the 1,800
foot steel girder bridge on Route 15 over the Housatonic River and is
scheduled to begin in October and be of 54 months' duration.

In South Carolina, the company has been awarded the $80 million contract for
the design and construction of the widening of the state highway 170 from two
lanes to four by the South Carolina Department of Transport.  The work
involves widening 12.5 miles of the road and building a number of new bridges.
Balfour Beatty has already begun preliminary design work and site work will
begin in about three months.  The project is scheduled for completion by the
autumn 2003.

In Texas, the company has won the $15 million contract to construct a four-
lane highway in Fort Worth for the Texas Department of Transport.  This is the
latest in a series of road projects won in Texas over the last five years.
The work is due to be completed within 12 months.

Commenting today on these awards, Balfour Beatty Chief Executive, Mike Welton,
said: 'We are delighted to have further consolidated our position in the US
civil and specialist engineering market through the award of these contracts.
The US is a key market for several of our specialist businesses.  In
transportation, significant expenditure is anticipated on the road and rail
infrastructure and we are very well positioned to play a full part in both
markets.'

Balfour Beatty Construction Inc is one of the US's leading civil engineering
contractors, with projects under way in California, Texas and in a number of
states on the Eastern Seaboard.

Balfour Beatty has some $650 million of sales per annum in the US, where its
interests are expanding.  It serves a number of selected growth markets
through companies who are leaders in their specialist fields.

Enquiries to:-

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


Notes to Editors
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1.   Balfour Beatty has more than $650 million per annum business in the USA.
In addition to its civil and specialist engineering work, it is a leader in
rail trackwork through the recently acquired Marta Metroplex; architectural
engineering and programme management through Heery Inc; and building
management control systems through Andover Controls and Integral Technologies.

2.   In civil and specialist engineering, Balfour Beatty had 1999 sales of
$340 million, covering road and interchange construction in Texas, marine
structures, large bridges and complex highways in the Eastern States and
tunnelling and seismic retrofit in California.

3.   Balfour Beatty, in joint venture with MEC, has recently completed the
overhead line electrification of the railway line between Boston and New Haven
for Amtrak in a contract valued at over $500 million.

4.   Marta Track is currently constructing a 50-mile extension to the DART
system in Dallas, Texas.  Metroplex has recently secured three major contracts
amounting to some $150 million in value.  These are to construct the BART San
Francisco Airport Extension, the Alameda Corridor Rail Project in Los Angeles
and the Southern New Jersey Light Rail System.

5.   Andover Controls is a market and technology leader in building management
and security control systems and has annual sales of over $100 million.
Integral Technologies, which was acquired in July, is a leader in security
surveillance and digital imaging technology.  Andover's clients include Merck,
AT & T and Johnson & Johnson.

6.   Heery is a leading architectural engineering and programme management
company with annual turnover of over $150 million and a client list which
includes Coca Cola, Home Depot and MBNA.

7.   For the SC170 widening contract, Balfour Beatty was selected from a field
of six prequalified bidders.  The 42-month project is for the design and
construction of a 12-mile widening of existing State Route 170 from two lanes
to four lanes.  Some of the unique improvements offered by the Balfour Beatty
team include revised vertical alignment of the bridges to improve aesthetics,
line of sight and drainage, a state of the art containment drainage system to
keep pollutants out of the rivers and natural stone walls to protect old live
oak trees that are native to the area.

8.   For the Sikorsky Bridge project, the new structure crosses both wetlands
and a navigable river channel.  At completion, it will carry six lanes of
vehicle traffic plus shoulders and sidewalks.  Construction involves
cofferdams, drilled shaft foundations, cast in place substructure and piers,
high strength structural steel plate girders and cast in place concrete deck
with an asphalt riding surface.