VINCI, AECOM, Lhoist: Top 5 Construction Stories This Week
Martin Marietta Materials will buy Lhoist North America in a cash-and-stock deal worth US$13.5bn, the company has announced. The deal will create the biggest producer of lime and limestone in the United States at a time when demand for limestone is growing rapidly.
Lhoist North America is a subsidiary of Lhoist Group, a privately held Belgian company owned by the Berghmans family, and specialises in critical ingredients for domestic steel manufacturing, including hi-calcium lime and dolomitic lime.
According to data from Mordor Intelligence, the global limestone market currently stands at an estimated 5.58 billion tons in 2026, up from 5.38 billion tons in 2025. It is forecast to reach 6.71 billion tons by 2031, growing at a compound annual rate of 3.76%.
AECOM has secured a position on nine lots within the Government Commercial Agency (GCA) Construction Professional Services 2 (CPS2) Framework. The global company held five lots when it was first appointed to the framework in 2021.
The framework has a total value of US$4.7bn. It provides the main route for UK public sector organisations to procure construction services across health, housing, energy and education projects.
Central UK government departments and public sector bodies can access technical advisory, design and project management services through the agreement. The framework covers standalone projects, multi-year capital programmes and international work for government clients operating worldwide.
Isabelle Spiegel, Vice President in charge of Environment at VINCI, spoke at the Sustainability LIVE: Leaders Summit during London Climate Action Week in June 2026 about infrastructure delivery and materials innovation in construction.
In a Q&A, she explained how VINCI sources solutions from project teams and scales technical interventions across urban infrastructure work.
VINCI has reduced Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 26% since 2018 and Scope 3 emissions by 4% since 2019, according to the company.
A manufacturing campus covering eight million square feet across 600 acres has begun construction in Greensboro, North Carolina. To put the scale in perspective, the facility is equivalent to approximately 140 football pitches.
California-based JetZero announced a US$4.7bn investment for the production facility in 2024, a project that could create more than 14,500 jobs, according to the company.
The factory was co-designed with Siemens' Smart Infrastructure, Electrification and Automation divisions to use digital and industrial AI tools. According to JetZero, it represents the largest economic development project in North Carolina's history.
EDF and Holtec International have submitted plans to the UK Government for a small modular reactor (SMR) development at Cottam in Nottinghamshire.
The site is a 900-acre brownfield location where a coal-fired power station operated until decommissioning in 2019. Demolition and site clearance work is under way at the former station.
The existing grid infrastructure remains in place. This could reduce the cost and timeline for connecting new generation capacity compared to greenfield developments. The site supplied power to the national grid for more than 50 years before closure.
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Isabelle Spiegel
Executive Committee Member
Ward Nye
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
