Its Carlisle Southern Link Road job, which was rebid after original contractor Morgan Sindall failed to agree a final price, was secured for £140m, while Leicestershire’s Melton Mowbray distributor road was signed off at £115m.
The two jobs contributed heavily to the firm’s total haul of orders for the month at nearly £395m.
Wates placed second in the March rankings with nine projects totalling £306m, spearheaded by a £120m refurbishment of MPs offices in Parliamant’s Norman Shaw Building south.
In the rolling 12-month league rankings, the pecking order remained the same as last month with Kier well ahead of Balfour Beatty closely followed by Bouygues.
Top 5 contractors by work won in year to March
According to data compiled by Barbour ABI, the top 50 firms secured 191 jobs, estimated to be worth nearly £3.98bn, in March.
Among the other big project wins Mace signed off a £120m deal with client Fabrix to deliver a pioneering new office block in Southwark containing a “sky forest”. The 430,000 sq ft Roots in the Sky scheme will transform Blackfriars Crown Court into a sustainable office complex containing the UK’s first rooftop urban forest.
A joint venture between Van Oord-owned Mackley Civil Engineering and Jones Bros Civils bagged a £167m order from Portsmouth Water to construct the Havant Thicket Reservoir in Hampshire.
Tilbury Douglas was confirmed as the builder for the Shotley Bridge Community hospital in Consett after plans approved by Durham County Council. Construction could start on the project, estimated at £150m, in the Autumn.
In a busy month for McAleer & Rushe, the bid department took a trio of big residential projects. The largest for 274 flats in East London at Stroudley Walk, Bow is estimated to be worth £95m.
In Scotland, the firm will deliver 338 flats in Lothian at the Skyliner Ocean Drive scheme for around £80m and in Birmingham, the firm will deliver a 29-storey student apartment tower worth £65m at Gough Street, Queensway.