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ºÚ¶´ÉçÇø magazine reported that Land Securities has replaced Sir Robert McAlpine with Mace on its £100M Park House project on Oxford Street after the developer changed its procurement route from design and build to construction management to cut costs.

McAlpine is also thought to have been axed from a £140M retail development in Newport, south Wales. Developer Modus is rebidding the project as a management contract to shoulder more risk itself and cutting the amount it must pay the contractor.

BAA has signed up nine contractors to a framework worth £9.5Bn of work over the next decade, reported ºÚ¶´ÉçÇø. A source told the magazine that the airport operator awarded contracts on its Complex Projects Framework to all nine firms that made its shortlist last March - Ferrovial, Balfour Beatty, Laing O'Rourke, Carillion, Skanska, Taylor Woodrow, Costain, Morgan Ashurst and Mace. The work would include the erection of new terminals at Heathrow and Stansted, plus other airport infrastructure and civils work.

Construction News (CN) leads with a report that bidders for the huge £5Bn M25 widening project are being asked to resubmit their tenders. At a meeting next Friday The Highways Agency will tell the three consortia which parts of their bids are unsatisfactory, signalling more costly bid work. Despite the extra work, contractors told CN that they welcomed the move as proof of the agency's committment to kickstart the scheme next year.

Contractors could benefit from a £185Bn Indian construction boom as the country acts to upgrade creaking infrastructure, reported Contract Journal. At a UK Trade and Investment-organised conference last week, Indian construction industry expert Sukanya Badri from Feedback Business Consulting Services told delegates that the country would invest between £170Bn and £180Bn in roads, airports, ports, power and power systems by 2012.