Exclusive: Five firms are in the running for a high-profile job to build a new £42m exhibition space for the Victoria & Albert museum

Five firms are in the running for a high-profile job to build a new £42m exhibition space for the Victoria & Albert museum in west London.

Building understands that Mace, Bam Construct, Balfour Beatty, Wates and Skanska have been shortlisted for the £23m main contractor role on the Exhibition Road Building project, which forms part of the wider programme of works at the museum.

The Exhibition Road Building project, designed by Amanda Levete Architects, comprises a new purpose-built underground gallery for the V&A’s programme of temporary exhibitions, a publicly-accessible courtyard space and a new entrance from the newly landscaped Exhibition Road on the west side of the museum.

The project will also reveal the Victorian facades on the west side of the V&A’s grade-I listed buildings which have been restored to their former glory but never before seen by the public.

Building work is expected to start this year, with the space opening to the public in 2016.

Kensington and Chelsea council granted permission for the Exhibition Road project last July.