Costain

The government has scrapped its plans for the roll-out of smart motorways. The Department for Transport (DfT) and the prime minister decided to cancel all 14 of the planned motorway upgrades, following a “summer campaign pledge” made by Rishi Sunak in his bid to become leader of the Conservative Party.…

A former Crossrail worker has said he was fired and blacklisted after raising concerns about health and safety. In a statement read out in the High Court today, Daniel Collins said there was a “culture of hostility” towards trade union activists in construction, which led to him being blacklisted from…

Costain has returned to profit despite registering a £17m provision to rectify work at a water-treatment facility. The contractor posted a £32.8m pre-tax profit for the year ending 31 December 2022, reversing the £13.3m loss made the previous year. Costain’s revenue was also up, at £1.42bn compared with £1.14bn the…

HS2 is investigating how a roughly 6 square metre pool of bubbling slurry emerged on a rugby pitch in Ruislip, north-west London. The brown foam emerged from the ground on Saturday (18 February), above a site where CSC – a joint venture between Costain, Skanska and Strabag – is boring…

Balfour Beatty moved to the top of the contractors' league table for the first time in two years thanks to a £1.2bn job to build the northern road linked to the Lower Thames Crossing. The job, to build nearly 10 miles of new road, almost single-handedly drove Balfour to first…

Costain has appointed a navy veteran to lead its newly combined defence and nuclear business. Bob Anstey, who had a 36-year career in the Royal Navy, will head up the division. Anstey’s long career in the armed forces led to him being awarded an OBE in 2020. Costain managing director…

The planned upgrade of a key section of the A66 has been deemed “poor value for money” by the Department for Transport (DfT) due to spiralling costs. The scheme to complete the dualling of the Northern Trans-Pennine route between the A1(M) at Scotch Corner and the M6 at Penrith is…

HS2’s decision to use a government electricity framework has cut the price it pays for energy by approximately 10 per cent. The multimillion-pound high-speed rail project opted to use a government framework to buy in the electricity it needs to power machinery used on phase one of the build, which…

Abida Lalani has been appointed to Costain's executive board, which now has a female majority. Lalani takes up the role of strategy and transformation director and started her new position earlier this month. It will see her focus on accelerating the implementation of the group's strategy across its four markets…

The government should appoint an infrastructure secretary to ensure stronger leadership on nationally significant projects across the UK, Costain’s chief executive has suggested. Speaking to Construction News, Alex Vaughan said a dedicated senior minister in the role would help to “join up” different government departments working on large-scale schemes. Vaughan…