Costain has left \u201cone of the most critical road upgrades in the north of England\u201d less than a year after its appointment by National Highways.<\/p>\n
The contractor was named alongside Balfour Beatty, Kier and Keltbray on the \u00a31.3bn A66 Northern Trans-Pennine project in October<\/a>, with the firms appointed to work together to dual remaining single-carriageway sections of the road.<\/p>\n Works also involved improving junctions between the M6 at Penrith and the A1 at Scotch Corner and were described by National Highways at the time as \u201cone of the most critical\u201d in northern England.<\/p>\n National Highways confirmed that Costain had left the project, while the other contractors continued to carry out the work.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the roads body said: \u201cNational Highways and Costain have agreed to a change in contracting strategy, which will see Costain\u2019s involvement on the A66 come to an organised and managed end. We would like to thank Costain for its work during the development phase of one of our most significant and complex projects.\u201d<\/p>\n It declined to comment further on why the change had been made.<\/p>\n A Costain spokesperson said: \u201cWe\u2019ve been holding regular meetings with National Highways about the A66 scheme. As a result of those meetings, we\u2019ve both agreed to a change in contracting strategy which will see Costain\u2019s involvement in the development phase of the A66 come to an organised and managed end. We will continue to bring our innovation and expertise to other critically important National Highways projects.\u201d<\/p>\n The move came just under a month after the contractor\u2019s job to upgrade barriers on the nearby M62 was cancelled after a National Highways appraisal<\/a>. That project was originally part of a smart motorway upgrade between junctions 20-25, abandoned after the government pulled the plug on the programme<\/a>.<\/p>\n At 9.30am today, Costain’s share price was down more than 8 per cent on its price at the start of this week.<\/p>\n However, a client note from investment bank Liberum said that worries over the firm’s contract book were \u201coverdone\u201d.<\/p>\n It said: \u201cThe order book is broadly unchanged at the FY 22 level of \u00a32.8bn which indicates new wins match the order burn and we expect positive contract news before the H1 23 results in August.<\/p>\n \u201cThere have been two departures in the road subdivision, but we don\u2019t believe it has weakened Costain\u2019s relationship with National Highways.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Costain has left \u201cone of the most critical road upgrades in the north of England\u201d less than a year after its appointment by National Highways. The contractor was named alongside Balfour Beatty, Kier and Keltbray on the \u00a31.3bn A66 Northern Trans-Pennine project in October, with the firms appointed to work together to dual remaining single-carriageway …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43915,"featured_media":468042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false},"categories":[549,558,532],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n