Jarvis has withdrawn from the bidding for the £3bn Allenby and Connaught defence PFI after the Ministry of Defence refused its application for extra time.
The contractor asked for a three-month extension to price the job after it was forced to reorganise its team. Former consortium members Bouygues, Costain and Sodexho pulled out of the team in the summer over fears of rising bid costs.

A Jarvis spokesperson confirmed that the firm withdrew on Monday. The spokesperson said: "The MoD said it could not grant the extension to us because of the timescale of the job and because it would be unfair to other bidders. We felt we needed more time, so we withdrew."

A source at the Jarvis team said the extension of time was also needed as a result of the scope of work needed for the scheme. The source said: "We found we could only price about £200-300m of the work. I think all the bidders have found problems with the size of the scheme."

Contractor Alfred McAlpine confirmed this week it had declined to join Jarvis' team.

Chief executive Oliver Whitehead said: "Having considered the likelihoods of cost and time, we decided it wasn't for us."

The move leaves two teams in the running – a joint venture between Bovis Lend Lease and Amey and a consortium including Mowlem and Brown & Root.

  • Jarvis construction director Peter Richardson has been moved to the firm's PFI division. Richardson has been given a new role as bid director for infrastructure PFI schemes. Facilities management head Dave Evans is to take on the construction director role and will combine the two jobs.