Britain’s biggest contractor secured £1.91bn of new contracts in the UK, 27% down on the total recorded by information specialist Glenigan in 2012.
Kier took the honours for most work won in the building sector, and Costain came top of the civils work league with a £1bn haul, inflated by its £250m Hinkley Point power station win to build three tunnels to channel seawater in and out of the plant.
In the overall construction contract rankings, Kier pipped Morgan Sindall for second place after securing a £121m job to redevelop RAF Lyneham for the MoD in joint venture with Balfour.
In the final reckoning for 2013 just £18m of work separated Kier and Morgan Sindall at year end.
Kier also picked up the greatest number of contracts this year, worth £1.4bn.
Carillion, which has also enjoyed a surge of contract wins in recent months, rolled up in fourth place after several years of reining back work, while the BAM group took fifth place.
In 2012, Balfour Beatty also came top of the table with a work haul of £2.4bn, ahead of Laing O’Rourke (£1.89bn), Sir Robert McAlpine (£1.89bn), Kier (£1.67bn) and Morgan Sindall (£1.56bn).