British Contractors Form Queue to Lobby Bechtel for Iraq Work

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Byline: JAMES ROSSITER;JAKE LLOYD-SMITH

BRITISH companies eager to secure a slice of reconstruction work in Iraq are inundating Bechtel, the main US project manager, with statements of interest.

A London-based spokesman for Bechtel said: "We are having four or five approaches an hour."

Engineering and construction companies Costain, Balfour Beattie and Amey are hopeful they can win some of the more sophisticated subcontracts.

San Francisco-based Bechtel was awarded a $680 million ([pounds sterling]425 million) contract by the US Agency for Internat ional Development (USAID) for the preliminary reconstruction work.

The programme will …