The trio will fight it out to build the second of five batches of schools to be funded using the Government’s new PF2 private finance initiative.
In the north east, the £120m building programme will be made up of six secondary schools and six primary schools, including two first schools – Hetton School in Sunderland and Mandale Mill Primary School in Stockton on Tees.
The Government’s £700m private finance school programme has attracted several new names that did not secure work in the publicly funded Priority School Building Programme.
This saw Bam Construct, Carillion, Kier, Sir Robert McAlpine, Wates and Willmott Dixon share the honours.
The first £150m PF2 batch saw Morgan Sindall and a joint venture between Interserve and Kajima join Wates in the shortlisted line up.
Bids for the seven schools across Hertfordshire, Luton and Reading are due in the first week of January, with a winner due to be announced in February.
A further three batches covering covering a dozen schools in the North West (£93m); seven schools in Yorkshire (£97m) and eight schools in the Midlands (£122m) are due out in coming months.