Vinci’s UK businesses suffered a steep revenue drop in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, new accounts have revealed.
Its UK operations, which include its Vinci, Taylor Woodrow, Eurovia and Bachy Soletanche contracting businesses as well as Gatwick Airport, of which it is majority owner, saw revenue plunge by more than €413m (£357m) to €2.59bn (£2.24bn), according to the results for the year ending 31 December 2020, which were published yesterday evening..
The company said its airport operations have been hardest hit by the pandemic, but its UK construction business had also seen turnover decline. The ramp-up of work on major projects such as HS2, which it is working on in a joint venture with Balfour Beatty, helped to offset some of the decline, it added. Trading levels for the contracting businesses have now returned to near-pre-pandemic levels, but its airport operations remain badly affected.
Entrepose Contracting, Vinci Construction Grands Projets and Taylor Woodrow all Vinci Construction subsidiaries have been awarded an EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contract by National Grid to construct a 190,000 cu m liquefied natural gas (LNG) tank in the United Kingdom. This project is part of the programme to expand the capacity of .
Three Vinci subsidiaries have secured a £176m contract with National Grid to build a 190,000 cubic metre liquefied natural gas tank.
The firms – Entrepose Contracting, Vinci Construction Grands Projets and Taylor Woodrow – will work together on the project to expand the capacity of the largest liquified natural gas terminal in Europe on the Isle of Grain in Kent. National Grid has awarded an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to the firms, with works due to run until 2025.
Vinci said the full containment tank has a 9 per cent nickel steel inner tank with a pre-stressed concrete outer shell, which will be poured in-situ using slipforming. The French-owned contractor has been involved in the construction of around 20 liquified natural gas tanks worldwide over the past 15 years, three of which are still in progress. These include two 160,000 square-metre tanks in Russia and a 225,000 square-metre facility in Canada.
Green light for £250m road-widening project in Somerset
Transport secretary Grant Shapps has approved the £100m-£250m road-widening job on the A303 between Sparkford and Ilchester in Somerset.
The Highways England job, to which Galliford Try was appointed in November 2019, was delayed last year after concerns were raised by the Ministry of Defence about the creation of ponds near the road that it feared would attract birds that could be hazardous to the nearby Royal Naval Air Station in Yeovil.
In July, Shapps raised the prospect of refusing the scheme on this basis but after Highways England offered to monitor and manage birds present at the ponds and the MoD agreed to the plan, the scheme was approved last week.
The Sparkford to Ilchester scheme will help to improve journey times and reliability on the A303 in Somerset and improve links to Dorset and South West. Picture: Highways England A congestion-busting upgrade to dual the A303 in the South West has been given the green light by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps. The upgrade, between Sparkford and Ilchester in Somerset, will tackle congestion on the traffic-clogged single carriageway section of the arterial route. On an average day, the road carries 23,500 vehicles, but numbers increase significantly in the summer, particularly at weekends, making journeys unreliable and unpredictable. The road also is a key road for those travelling to and from Dorset with its links to the A37, especially in the Summer.