In 2018, Balfour plunged out of the top 10 as chief executive Leo Quinn focused on a self-help recovery programme.

Balfour received an end of 2019 leg up following confirmation in December of its £267m deal to complete former Carillion’s Midland Metropolitan Hospital project.

This helped the firm secure pole position in the annual contracts league with a haul of £2.1bn worth of projects in 2019, just ahead of second-placed Morgan Sindall on around £1.9bn and Mace in third position with £1.7bn.

The top 10 firms saw their share of total new orders secured by the 100 leading contractors stabilise at last year’s level of 40%, according to data collected by information specialist Glenigan.

Overall the total haul of work shared by these 100 firms rose 10% to £40.6bn compared with 2018.

Multiplex and Bowmer & Kirkland make the Top 10 for the first time in three years, while Wates, Tarmac and Galliford Try dropped out of the top 10.

Based on civil engineering workloads alone Balfour ranked top again followed by BAM and then VolkerWessels.

Click for full 100 contractors league

Click for full 100 clients league

Among the big contract awards in December, Multiplex secured the Elephant & Castle shopping centre redevelopment for Delancy, which Glenigan values at £1bn.

Murphy and Hochtief share the £400m phase 2 of National Grid’s London Tunnels project.

Murphy and Careys share a £235m Oxford Street redevelopment for Westminster City Council. Buckingham Group has a £100m deal for the new Nottingham Forest FC stadium.

Graham Construction was also confirmed for a £130m student accommodation project at York University.