In a trading statement this morning it revealed that several months of due diligence ramped up the bid costs, which are to be taken as a one-off trading hit in the first half of the year.

Costain said despite the bidding set-back it had made a good start to 2013 with the order book at £2.5bn, against £2.4bn at the end of last year.

The group also increased its preferred bidder position by an extra £100m to over £500m.

Over £800m has been secured for this year with tendering activity in target markets remaining high.

Andrew Wyllie, chief executive, said Costain is concentrating on developing innovative solutions to met customer needs, helping it to secure higher margin work.

A series of strategic joint venture bids helped secure a brace of power jobs in the first part of the year.

These included a West Coast Power Supply Upgrade contract, its first contract as part of a £300m investment by Network Rail.

In another joint venture Costain also secured the £300m contract to design, fit-out and commission the railway systems across Crossrail’s tunnel network.

It also this year won a two-year extension to its managing agent contractor Area 7 maintenance contract.