John Murphy & Son shot to the top of the contracts league last month on the strength of the award of the Lower Thames Crossing road tunnel contract.

It shares the estimated £1.3bn order with joint venture partner Bam Nuttall but edged ahead of its partner in the rankings with an extra small project award.

Morgan Sindall placed third in February with a clutch of contract wins estimated at nearly £550m, according to data compiled by Barbour ABI.

The chief order finalised by Morgan Sindall’s fit-out arm Overbury was for the £300m-plus Project Saturn to refurbish the 42-storey Citi office tower in Canary Wharf.

 

According to Barbour ABI data, February proved a bumper month for orders with the total value of awards secured by the 50 most successful contractors totalling nearly £5bn, representing 111 projects.

In the rolling 12-month league of wins, Morgan Sindall continued to rank top. Kier jumped to second place, while Willmott Dixon rose to third after a strong month.

Among the other major projects wins Railway pension fund manager Railpen awarded Skanska a £200m contract to build a speculative twin office project in Cambridge, known as Botanic Place.

In Manchester, developer Salboy’s construction arm Domis took on the redevelopment of the old Boddington’s Brewery site with a housing-led £195m mixed-used scheme, which involves five new buildings, including building a 20-storey tower.

In London, United Living sealed a £190m deal with Westmister City Council to retrofit Huguenot House, a former Odeon cinema and flats near Leicester Square.

Huguenot House plan

Also in London, Multiplex secured a £150m revamp of the landmark New Zealand House tower in London’s St James’s. The 18-storey building at 80 Haymarket was considered to be London’s first tower block.