A council has shelved a £100m road scheme, which Costain had announced was to be built pending the project being signed off.
Proposals for the project led by Lancashire County Council included a new road between the M6 at junction 33 and a proposed garden village in south Lancaster, as well as a new park and promenade.
Costain announced in March last year that it would provide “detailed design and stakeholder engagement” for the scheme, “as well as building works, once planning has been approved”.
Construction news he understands that the council had yet to officially commission a company to build the project.
Last week, the council announced it was suspending work to “reassess the plans” as it said rising costs due to inflation would have affected delivery of the plan.
A total of £140 million had been awarded to the government’s Housing Infrastructure Fund scheme but is now being paid back.
The news comes after Costain earlier this month left another major road project – the £1.3 billion A66 Northern Trans-Pennine scheme, less than a year after his appointment.
And last month the contractor’s work to improve the barriers on the M62 it was canceled after an assessment of national roads.
At the time of the news about Costain leaving the A66 job, investment bank Liberum said concerns about the company’s contract book were “overblown”. In a note, the bank also suggested that the departure of two workers from Costain’s roads business had not “weakened” its relationship with National Roads.
In a statement today, a spokesman for the premier contractor said it had been “advising” Lancashire County Council on the plan “in the face of global funding and inflationary pressures”.
However, the spokesman added: “We were engaged to work on a consultancy basis and therefore the council’s decision to suspend the scheme will not have any material impact on Costain or our future order book.”
In March, Costain revealed that he did turned a profit again in 2022 as his turnover increased, helped by the growth of his consulting work.
