Engineering and construction group Balfour Beatty today said it had won deals in the United States worth more than 200 million US dollars (£112.6m).

London-based Balfour said the central division of its US civil engineering arm had secured new road building contracts in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The largest of the deals is worth 114 million US dollars (£64.2m) and is the second largest ever to have been awarded by transport chiefs in Ohio.

It involves the construction of a new interchange including 17 bridges, 18 ramps and 43 lane miles of new motorway.

Balfour chief executive Mike Welton said the company expected to benefit from significant increases in the new five year US federal road and transit budget being finalised shortly.

Balfour, which is also active in the UK transport market, said in March that £1.2 billion of contracts from London Underground had helped it boost annual pre-tax profits by 10% to £130 million.

The group said its order book grew by 14% to £5.8 billion in 2003, mainly due to two Public Private Partnership (PPP) deals to upgrade the Tube.

The firm has a 20% share in the Metronet consortium that has two lucrative 30-year concessions with London Underground.

It is also involved in road construction, widening and maintenance in the UK and railway electrification work around Europe. It is carrying out more than £180 million of project work on Heathrow's new Terminal Five.

Monday May 10, 2004