director since 1937, A.E.Parkinson, became chairman. In the mid 1950s, amongst other projects, it had extensive building contracts in Cyprus and was extensively expanding the North Thames Gas Board's Beckton Gasworks in East London. The Parkinson Strip Mining Company opened at Ewart Hill. Contracts On 5 July 1957, it began building its first motorway, the Lancaster bypass. The contract included 27 bridges. It was hampered by bad weather in 1958, but the summer of 1959 had good weather. It was opened on Monday 11 April 1960 by Charles Hill, Baron Hill of Luton and cost £4 million. In December 1960, it was given a £2.2 million contract for the preparation of Oldbury Nuclear Power Station. In June 1961, it was given the £5.9 million contract for nine miles of the M6 (Birmingham – Preston Motorway) in Cheshire, north of the Staffordshire boundary. In February 1963, it was given a contract for preparations for Kingsnorth power station. In September 1963, it was awarded a £3.7 million contract for the Belfast south approach road, which was seven miles of motorway. In July 1964 they were awarded the £4.3 million contract for the Coldra-Crick section of the London – South Wales motorway (M4), which was nine miles of motorway with an 830 ft viaduct at Coldra and a 720 ft viaduct of the Nedern Valley. It had also been awarded the £5.5 million contract for the seven-mile Newport By-Pass Road (M4), both sections of the M4 opened in March 1967; the Brynglas Tunnels were built by Sir Robert McAlpine. It was awarded a £300,000 contract to connect the M5 with the M6 on an elevated section, with most bridge structure made by Dorman Long of Middlesbrough. It built the main printing works for the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company Limited on Victoria Island in Lagos. In July 1965, it was given the £7 million contract for a seven-mile motorway between Lurgan and Birches in Armagh. It opened its new headquarters, in December 1965, in Putney. In March 1966, it opened the £3.3 million motorway (M1) section from Sprucefield to Moira, and had been awarded the £7.5 million contract to extend it to Craigavon. In 1968, it was awarded the £6.75 million contract for the South of Quinton to Great Barr Section of the Midland Links Motorway (M5). In November 1968 it was awarded the £12.4 million contract for a thirteen-mile section of