Morgan clinches £42m of building projects

The first, a £22m contract with joint venture partner Grontmij, will improve Bridlington’s bathing water quality.

The second is a £20m deal to remove a critical bottleneck from the East Coast Main Line near Doncaster.

The Bridlington contract was awarded by Yorkshire Water Services. The project will include the construction of two new combined sewer overflow chambers and an 800-metre long, two-metre diameter, storm water tunnel.

A new storm water pumping station will also be built and the existing headworks building will be extended and its pumps upgraded.

The Morgan Sindall/Grontmij team will be working at four separate sites around Bridlington.

In addition Network Rail has awarded Morgan Sindall the £20m North Doncaster Chord project.

This deal includes the construction of a new 3.2km twin track railway and a six-span viaduct to add extra capacity and remove a critical bottleneck from the East Coast Main Line.

The development will include the construction of a permanent highway bridge over the East Coast Main Line and associated track and signalling connections.

The works will replace an existing level crossing with a highway bride which will reduce the height of the new railway link and provide road users with a safer crossing of the East Coast Main Line.

The scheme will be delivered by Network Rail, Morgan Sindall and URS working in a new alliance which Morgan Sindall said would harness efficiencies and mitigate risk.

John Morgan, Morgan Sindall’s chief executive, said: “We have a strong track record in the growth infrastructure sectors of rail and water and we look forward to working in close partnership with Network Rail and Yorkshire Water Services to deliver these important projects.

“We are focused on schemes which bring about improvements to environments and services and I am delighted that these projects will improve infrastructure for residents and visitors to Bridlington and for the thousands of passengers and freight services that rely on the East Coast Main Line.”

Earlier this month Morgan Sindall said it will miss full-year trading forecasts because of tough market conditions.

The company, which is behind a number of major schemes in Yorkshire, also said its chief executive Paul Smith had resigned.

Executive chairman John Morgan is returning to the post of chief executive as part of a boardroom reshuffle, which will also see senior independent director Adrian Martin become non-executive chairman.

Morgan Sindall also said it was facing a £10m restructuring charge this year, which will include office closures and a redundancy programme. It aims to make £55m of annualised savings over the three-year period to the end of 2012.

The company said that the market’s deterioration had hit the short-term outlook into 2013, and it is continuing to be highly selective when bidding for new work.

Morgan Sindall is involved in a number of affordable housing and urban regeneration schemes.

Its construction business is being reorganised to focus delivery through regional hub offices, with a number of smaller offices being closed. The group is focusing on growth sectors of the infrastructure market where it has a strong track record, namely rail, aviation, energy and highways.

It is working on a number of big projects across Yorkshire, including Doncaster’s £300m civic and cultural quarter.

Muse, the group’s urban regeneration arm, is developing KPMG’s new 60,000 sq ft office in Sovereign Street, Leeds.

KPMG’s office is the first new build development in the Leeds city centre office market since 2006.

In August, Muse said it also hoped to develop Leeds’ new medical park at Logic, a 100-acre site close to Junction 45 of the M1, which falls within the Aire Valley Leeds Enterprise Zone.

It is also helping to expand Coca-Cola’s Wakefield bottling plant.

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