Construction group Balfour Beatty today boosted its order book after securing another 1.2 billion dollars (£606m) worth of contract work in the US.

Balfour's US arm will renovate and extend a national military medical centre in Maryland with American partner Clark Construction.

Other work includes building a US Army training centre in Virginia, expanding a hotel in Florida and a vineyard water treatment plant in California.

Details of the contracts emerged as Balfour posted stronger-than-expected annual profits of £201 million - up 48% on the previous year - and said its order book improved 25% to £11.4 billion.

The company said: "We have record order books and an exceptionally strong pipeline of high-quality new work approaching contract."

Shares opened almost 2% higher today