BAM Nuttall Limited (formerly known as Edmund Nuttall Limited) is a

construction Construction are processes involved in delivering buildings, infrastructure, industrial facilities, and associated activities through to the end of their life. It typically starts with planning, financing, and design that continues until the a ...

and

civil engineering Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...

company headquartered in

Camberley Camberley is a town in north-west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. It is in the Surrey Heath, Borough of Surrey Heath and is close to the county boundaries with Hampshire and Berkshire. Known originally as "Cambridge Tow ...

, United Kingdom. It has undertaken road, rail, nuclear, and other major projects worldwide. It is a subsidiary of the Dutch Royal BAM Group. Found by James Nuttall Senior in 1865, the company undertook civil engineering works initially in the road and

sewerage Sewerage (or sewage system) is the infrastructure that conveys sewage or surface runoff ( stormwater, meltwater, rainwater) using sewers. It encompasses components such as receiving drains, manholes, pumping stations, storm overflows, and scr ...

sectors, in and around

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

. Over time, it took on various major engineering works, such as those related to the

Manchester Ship Canal The Manchester Ship Canal is a inland waterway in the North West England, North West of England linking Manchester to the Irish Sea. Starting at the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary at Eastham, Merseyside, Eastham, near Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, it ...

Lynton and Barnstaple Railway The Lynton and Barnstaple Railway (L&B) was a single track (rail), single track, narrow gauge railway. It opened in May 1898 and ran for slightly more than through the area bordering Exmoor in North Devon, England. Although it opened afte ...

, and the Mersey Tunnel. Following the death of James Nuttall Senior in 1904, his sons, Sir Edmund Nuttall, 1st Baronet and James Nuttall, headed the company and expanded it throughout Great Britain. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, then-head of the company, Sir Keith Nuttall, 2nd Baronet, died in the line of duty with the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces ...

while the company itself fulfilled numerous government contracts, including the building of the

Mulberry harbour The Mulberry harbours were two temporary portable harbours developed by the Admiralty (United Kingdom), British Admiralty and War Office during the Second World War to facilitate the rapid offloading of cargo onto beaches during the Allies of ...

units, various Royal Ordnance Factories, and other defence-related schemes. Following the conflict, the business worked on numerous major projects, including on

power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electr ...

s and several lengthy tunnels, including planning works for the

Channel Tunnel The Channel Tunnel (), sometimes referred to by the Portmanteau, portmanteau Chunnel, is a undersea railway tunnel, opened in 1994, that connects Folkestone (Kent, England) with Coquelles (Pas-de-Calais, France) beneath the English Channel at ...

. It was purchased by the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

-based construction group Hollandsche Beton Groep (later ''HBG''), and soon after acquired numerous other businesses, mainly based in the British market. Following the

Privatisation of British Rail The privatisation of British Rail was the process by which ownership and operation of the Rail transport in Great Britain, railways of Great Britain passed from government control into private hands. Begun in 1994, the process was largely compl ...

, the company developed a considerable footprint in the railway construction sector. During 2002, HBG (and thus Edmund Nuttall) was acquired by Royal BAM Group, after which some restructuring was performed. On 10 October 2008, Edmund Nuttall Limited changed its name to BAM Nuttall Limited.

History

The company was founded by James Nuttall Senior in

in 1865. Its initial activities centred around road and

works. Within its first few decades of operations, it undertook various major engineering works associated with

infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and pri ...

developments, such as the

(opened in 1894) and the

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

(opened in 1898). During 1902, management of the company changed when James Nuttall Senior brought his two sons, Sir Edmund Nuttall, 1st Baronet (1870–1923) and James Nuttall (1877–1957), into partnership with him, soon after trading under the name ''Edmund Nuttall & Company''. Edmund played a key road in the development of the business following the death of James Nuttall Senior two years later. One particularly decisive contract was the majority of the civil engineering works associated with the construction of the Mersey Tunnel. Throughout the

interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...

, the company expanded into a nationwide enterprise, during which time it was headed by Sir Edmund's son, Sir Keith Nuttall, 2nd Baronet (1901–1941). Other members of the family that would be actively involved in the business was Sir Keith's brother Clive Nuttall (1906–1936) and their cousin (James Nuttall's son) Norman Nuttall (1907–1996). Early on in the

, Sir Keith died in the line of duty with the

after having been severely wounded at

Dunkirk Dunkirk ( ; ; ; Picard language, Picard: ''Dunkèke''; ; or ) is a major port city in the Departments of France, department of Nord (French department), Nord in northern France. It lies from the Belgium, Belgian border. It has the third-larg ...

; his shares in the business were inherited by his eight-year-old son, Sir Nicholas Nuttall, 3rd Baronet (1933–2007). Despite being the principal shareholder, Sir Nicholas did not play a management role in the company. During the Second World War, the company garnered numerous government contracts. Perhaps the most high-profile of these was its involvement in the building of the

units alongside several other contractors. Other wartime undertakings included the construction of various Royal Ordnance Factories, underground magazines, and other defence works. Following the conflict, the company's activities continued to grow in scope, working on the construction of numerous

s and tunnels throughout the 1950 and 1960s. It was also involved in early efforts towards the construction of the

. In 1978, the company was bought by the

-based construction group Hollandsche Beton Groep (later ''HBG''). One year later, Nuttall acquired rival company Mears. Various acquisitions occurred during the 1990s, including Hynes Construction (1992), John Martin Construction (1999) and Finchpalm Ltd (2000). During 2002, HBG was acquired (and thus Edmund Nuttall as well) by Royal BAM Group in exchange for €715 million. On 10 October 2008, Edmund Nuttall Limited changed its name to BAM Nuttall Limited. During the early 21st century, BAM Nuttall established itself as the principal construction partner of

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and railway infrastructure manager, infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. ...

, the British railway infrastructure owner, the latter issuing work valued at upwards of £300 million to BAM Nuttall in 2023 alone on projects such as the

Levenmouth rail link The Levenmouth rail link (also called the Leven rail link) is a recently reopened branch line railway in Fife, Scotland. The link connects the town of Leven, Fife, Leven and other settlements in the Levenmouth conurbation with Thornton, Fife, T ...

, Inverness Airport railway station, and the Dawlish sea wall. BAM Nuttall often pursues joint bids with various other companies; one such alliance of companies was appointed in 2017 as the preferred bidder for works as part of the

Transpennine Route Upgrade The Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) is a major investment being made in the railway between York and Manchester ''via'' Leeds and Huddersfield in the north of England. It is the northern route over the Pennines, most of which is also known a ...

between Manchester and Leeds with a projected completion date of between 2036 and 2041. As part of a separate joint venture, BAM Nuttall is also involved in HS2 lots C2 and C3, which are due to complete in 2031. During 2023, BAM Nuttall recorded a turnover of £1.165 billion, reportedly achieving a profit of £66m, a year-on-year increase of almost 50 percent.

Major projects

Major projects undertaken by the company include: * The Liver Building completed in 1911 *

Queensway Tunnel The Queensway Tunnel ( signposted as the Birkenhead Tunnel or B'head Tunnel) is a road tunnel under the River Mersey, in the north west of England, between Liverpool and Birkenhead. Locally, it is often referred to as the "old tunnel", to disti ...

under the

Mersey The River Mersey () is a major river in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it ...

completed in 1932 * Dartford Tunnel completed in 1963 *

Tyne Tunnel The Tyne Tunnel is the name given to a pair of two-lane vehicular toll tunnels under the River Tyne in North East England. Originally opened in 1967 and expanded in 2011, the tunnels connect the town of Jarrow on the south bank of the river with ...

completed in 1967 *

Kingsway Tunnel The Kingsway Tunnel ( signposted as the Wallasey Tunnel or W'sey Tunnel) is a toll road tunnel under the River Mersey between Liverpool and Wallasey. It was built because the existing Queensway Tunnel was unable to cope with the rise in po ...

completed in 1971 * Liverpool

Merseyrail Merseyrail is a commuter rail network which serves Merseyside and adjacent areas of Cheshire and Lancashire in the North West England, North West of England. Merseyrail serves 69 Railway station, stations, 67 of which it manages, across two lin ...

underground Loop Railway, presently called the Wirral Line, completed in 1978 * Medway Tunnel completed in 1996 *

High Speed 1 High Speed 1 (HS1), officially the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), is a high-speed railway linking London with the Channel Tunnel. It is part of the line carrying international passenger traffic between the United Kingdom and mainland Euro ...

completed in 2007 * The

Cambridgeshire Guided Busway The Cambridgeshire Guided Busway is a guided busway and Bus rapid transit that connects Cambridge, Huntingdon and St Ives, Cambridgeshire, St Ives in Cambridgeshire, England. It has the longest guided busway in the world, surpassing the O-Bahn B ...

completed in 2011 * Various civil engineering works and soil remediation for the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

completed in 2012 * Victoria Underground station North Ticketing Hall completed in 2017 * Enlargement of the ticket hall at

Tottenham Court Road tube station Tottenham Court Road is an interchange station in the St Giles area of the West End of London for London Underground and Elizabeth line services. The London Underground station is served by the Central and Northern lines. On the Central li ...

for Crossrail completed in 2017 * The Cross Tay Link Road due to be completed in 2024 Outer Harbour Construction

Climate protest

On 5 June 2005, following their bid for a contract to construct the Kingsnorth power station, the company headquarters in

, Surrey were invaded by climate protesters. Thirteen protesters took part in invading the offices, asking to speak about the chairman, distributing leaflets and unfurling a banner. The action resulted in five arrests; however the cases were thrown out with no case to answer.

References

Citations

Sources

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bam Nuttall Construction and civil engineering companies of the United Kingdom Lynton and Barnstaple Railway Companies based in Surrey British companies established in 1865 Nuttall family Construction and civil engineering companies established in 1865 1865 establishments in England