Balfour Beatty lands plethora of projects in California

Dive Brief:

• London-based Balfour Beatty is moving fast on the West Coast, recently nabbing seven projects with a total value of $235 million, the company announced Wednesday.
• The contracts are for K-12, correctional/justice and federal projects, according to the release, and were all awarded over the past six weeks on behalf of California school districts, the San Diego County government and the U.S. Marine Corps.
• The projects are fairly small in scope, from a $4 million lease-leaseback contract at La Mesa-Spring Valley School District to a $16 million project renovating Fontana Unified School District’s Sierra Lakes Elementary School. The largest project by far is a $99 million lease-leaseback contract to build a new secondary school for Fontana USD.

Dive Insight:

The recent awards are in line with Balfour Beatty’s push to secure more infrastructure and government contracts in the U.S., as highlighted during the company’s full-year earnings call in March. The company reported in March that its U.S. profits doubled from the previous fiscal year to $67.2 million.

The company’s California division plans to secure projects in what Brian Cahill, president of Balfour Beatty’s California operations, called the company’s “niche range” of $50 to $150 million.

Cahill said there was an abundance of opportunity for the company within these building segments, like education, despite economic headwinds and a looming recession.

“We’re seeing a strong pipeline of work,” Cahill told Construction Dive.

The contracts, according to the release, are for:

• Fontana USD’s new Secondary Academy: $99 million
• Marine Corps Recruit Depo, San Diego’s P-315 Mess Hall Replacement: $56.5 million
• San Diego USD’s (SDUSD) Kavod Charter School: $28.8 million
• SDUSD King Chavez Academy of Excellence’s Modernization: $28 million
• Fontana USD’s Sierra Lakes Elementary School Renovation: $16 million
• La Mesa-Spring Valley School District’s (LMSVSD) Entry Improvements and Slope Mitigation: $4 million
• San Diego County’s East Mesa Juvenile Detention Facility Renovation and House Softening Improvements: $3.4 million

On the West Coast, some of Balfour Beatty’s high-profile projects include the Los Angeles International Airport’s Automated People Mover (pictured above), along with another project, the new multi-billion dollar Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington, which the company is building in a joint venture with Swedish firm Skanska. However, the project was delayed over a far-reaching concrete strike that ended in April, and is now mired in controversy after the companies were summoned to appear in court over a discrimination and whistleblower lawsuit.