Balfour Beatty, the international engineering, construction, services and investment Group, has announced that it has signed an alliance agreement with Transpower, which owns and operates New Zealand's high-voltage electricity transmission grid, for the construction of the proposed transmission line from Whakamaru to Auckland.

The contract, valued at £82 million will be carried out in joint venture by Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions, the Group's specialist electricity, gas and water utilities engineering and construction business, and United Group Limited, the Australasian engineering and property services company. The award is conditional on the final decision of the Board of Inquiry process currently underway.


This success follows the recent announcement that Balfour Beatty had signed an alliance agreement, in joint venture with United Group Limited, with ATCO Electric to help ATCO Electric complete its capital programme and to meet electrical transmission needs in Alberta, Canada in a contract worth approximately £368 million to the alliance over the next five years.

The Transpower project involves the design, supply and construction of a 400kV-capable overhead line approximately 186 km long and forms part of the proposed North Island Grid Upgrade Project.

Construction activities are scheduled to begin in 2009 and the line is expected to be commissioned in November 2011.

(CD/JM)