The move has baffled employees as Costain continues to promote its image as a “smart infrastructure solutions company.”

Costain confirmed that up to 12 roles will be made redundant from the 150-strong workforce.

The centre originally focused on highways technology but now also serves water, transportation and energy contracts.

A company source told the Enquirer: “The hardware team who actually design the electronics – the heart and essence of the technology – are to lose three out of 10 people, two senior electronics engineers and one CAD engineer.”

Last summer Costain said it was planning to expand the technology centre with a move to a new premises as “another important step towards establishing Costain as the UK’s leading smart infrastructure company.”

The source said: “That move hasn’t happened and now this – it’s quite a change in direction.”

Costain formed the division in 2016 when it bought technology provider SSL for £17m

At the time chief executive Andrew Wyllie said: “This transaction will further broaden our ability to deliver innovative technology-based solutions to meet the increasingly complex requirements of our major blue chip customers in energy, water and transportation.”

Commenting on the redundancies, a Costain spokesperson said: “The type of work being delivered through our technology facility in Yatton is changing to meet our client needs which demand more technology systems integration and less hardware product development and manufacture.

“As a result we need to reshape our team which means that we need to consider risk of redundancy for 12 roles.

“We will make every effort to redeploy affected colleagues to other roles within the Group.”