MR GRAHAM KINDER, a senior partner in Babtie Shaw & Morton

International Ltd, walked into his Glasgow office last week with the

news that, after 10 days of negotiations in Turkey, the firm had been

awarded a World Bank-funded project to provide consultancy services for

the sewerage and storm water drainage in Ankara. The new works on this

$400m project have to be designed for a forecast population of 5.5m in

2025.

Other overseas involvement of this firm of consulting engineers

includes giving technical assistance in South America to the Guyana

Water Authority, in Pakistan to the Small Dams Directorate in the North

West Frontier Province and assisting with remedial work at Tiga Dam in

Nigeria. A team of water engineers is flying to Tianjin in China this

month to continue a project on water saving measures.

Founded in 1895, Babtie employs 650 between its Glasgow HQ and seven

UK regional offices. Main areas of expertise are in water supply,

sanitation, transportation, marine, and commercial and industrial

buildings.

The firm carried out the design and site supervision of the

improvements to the A82 Loch Lomond road. Work on the Luss bypass starts

this month. The four stages cost around #30m. Other road work includes

the engineering of a 8.7km section of three-lane motorway between

Kirkpatrick Fleming and Gretna with a construction value to #30m,

supervising work on the #12m A9 Dunblane bypass and a feasibility study

on the Stepps to Haggs section of the M80.

THE Miller Group has evolved over 55 years to become the UK's largest

privately owned construction company, with an annual turnover of #250m.

It has four main areas of operation -- construction, commercial and

industrial developments, private homes building, and opencast mining,

with over 19 billion tonnes of coal mined. The group also has interests

ranging from environmental rehabilitation to ancient monument

refurbishment, including work at Edinburgh Castle.

Miller operates throughout Britain, from Perth to Winchester, with a

presence overseas. However, its work in Scotland illustrates the group's

diversity and size.

Miller Construction's building and civil engineering contracts include

the #12.3m Time Capsule Leisure Complex at Coatbridge; the #5m

all-seated stadium for St Johnstone FC in Perth; the final #11.6m

section of the Edinburgh City By-pass; a #4m chemical plant for BP at

Grangemouth; a sewage plant at Greenock for #4.5m; #80m of oil-related

work in the Shetlands; and project management of a #10m complex for

Scottish Life in Edinburgh.

Miller Development owns over two million square feet of property and

is planning a #100m project at Springburn in Glasgow and a scheme of

similar value in Edinburgh.

Miller Homes, with over 60,000 units completed, has a variety of

residential sites, including ones of #10m in Ayr and #25m in Edinburgh.

It is also involved in urban redevelopment, for example at the #20m site

near the cathedral in Glasgow.

BOVIS Construction, a P&O Company, has had a strong presence in

Scotland for some 40 years and in addition to having introduced and

become the leading exponent of management contracting techniques, other

specialist contractual procedures such as design and build, construction

management and particular hybrid contracting arrangements are undertaken

and devised to meet specific client needs.

Bovis Construction (Scotland) Ltd recently restructured and

strengthened its management team and, from offices in Glasgow and

Edinburgh, tackles a broad range of projects, both large and small in

the commercial, industrial and leisure market sectors. Hospital and

health related developments and specific urban renewal schemes are new

areas of activity at present being examined.

Current significant contracts, with a value of some #60m, include the

Glasgow International Concert Hall; Scottish Widows' computer data

centre, Dalkeith; Old Course Hotel, St Andrews; Marks & Spencer store,

Falkirk; Sibec Developments' shopping centre, Newton Mearns; and

sports/leisure complexes for Edinburgh District Council.

THORBURN plc: Sam Thorburn set up on his own in 1966 as a geotechnical

and foundation engineering consultant. Now an internationally known

company, it has staff of around 170 in offices in Glasgow, Edinburgh and

London and has been and is involved in many major and prestigious

projects in the UK.

Completed industrial examples include the Caledonian papermill in

Irvine, the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in Glasgow and the

Aberdeen Exhibition Centre. Retail centres include the European award

winning one at Cameron Toll, Edinburgh. Prison work includes the new

extension to Shotts as well as wholesale redevelopment at Risley,

Lancashire. Present work varies from the proposed world trade centre in

Glasgow to film studios in Clydebank.

Lord Justice Taylor's report on the Hillsborough disaster paid

Thorburn an indirect compliment by referring to the superb design of the

Ibrox stadium. Work on sports stadia is now a major sector in the

practice's workload and, since Ibrox, Thorburn has designed the

completed facilities at Murrayfield and Belfast's Windsor Park and is

involved with work for Millwall and Newcastle in England as well as

Dundee, Dundee United, and Falkirk in Scotland. Sam Thorburn has been

invited to speak at a major conference in London on the safety of sports

grounds.

Overseas work has been undertaken offshore in Australia, Canada and

America. Site visits have been made to the Soviet Union, particularly

Yalta, where a major housing and leisure development is planned, and

Poland.

HALL and Tawse Scotland Ltd: Aberdeen based member of Raine Industries

plc, has expanded this year to become one of the top five Scottish

construction companies with a projected turnover of around #75m.

A third of this year's turnover is from Central Scotland with major

contracts from Murray International Holdings, Craigendarroch Ltd and

Rangers Football Club.

A #17m Edinburgh office park development is nearing completion for MIM

at South Gyle, the #3m Govan Stand extension at Ibrox Stadium is now

occupied and two hotel and leisure complexes worth #10m are under

construction for Craigendarroch at East Kilbride and Loch Lomond.

The company' plans are to develop a pool of skilled labour at all its

area offices in Glasgow, Broxburn, Perth, Elgin and Fraserburgh. To cope

with new business, the direct labour force has increased by 200 to 1400

in the past year.

Another aim this year is to become a fully registered quality assured

company with external auditing to guarantee high standards of

craftsmanship. The Aberdeen joinery factory is subject to external

audits and soon this will be extended throughout the company's entire

operations.

There has been growth recently in design and build contracts and

partnership housing schemes with Scottish Homes, local authorities and

housing associations. The company is due to start Scotland's first

partnership project with Scottish Homes at Kilmarnock soon. The #4.5m

project is for 160 homes. Joint venture housing projects are also in

progress at Perth, Aberdeen and Fraserburgh and a fourth scheme is due

to start soon at St Monan's in Fife.

YARD Ltd: This independent multidisciplinary systems and engineering

consultancy division within the Sema Group plc has a professional staff

of 850 recruited from a wide range of scientific and engineering

disciplines.

Personnel are located in the Glasgow head office and branches

throughout the UK including London, Chippenham, Bristol, Alderley Edge,

Dorchester, and Aberdeen. Overseas locations include the US. YARD can

also draw on the collaborative services of the 7000 Sema Group staff

located in most major European cities.

The YARD consultancy includes design and project management services

in the areas of civil, mechanical and electrical engineering, to clients

variously distribiuted in industry, defence, offshore and power

generation. Recent civil and structural projects range from a steelwork

satellite dish support structure costing #1000 to the redevelopment and

modernisation of a power plant and coal handling area worth in excess of

#3.6m.

In addition to YARD's expertise in conventional and civil and

structural engineering design, their engineers also have skills in

structural dynamics and earthquake engineering in particular. Recent

applications in this area have ranged from a small machine foundation

for a pharmaceuticals manufacturer to a large high integrity piled jetty

structure.

Placing strong emphasis on quality YARD undertakes project work to the

requirements of BS5750 and BS5882 for particular clients, in addition to

being approved to Nato AQAP1 and conforming to AQAP13 quality standards.