Leighton Holdings Limited subsidiary Thiess Services announced on late Monday the value of the work contract on Victoria's M89 ring road upgrade has been set at $623 million.

According to a statement released by Thiess, the initial work between the Calder Freeway and Sydney Road has been accomplished.

Thiess also said the construction in the Tulla Sydney section already started last December and has put additional lanes to be opened by the end of 2012.

The Tulla Sydney Alliance, including Thiess, VicRoads, and design partners Parsons Brinkerhoff, and Hyder Consulting, collaborated to complete the 9.7 km project.

Included in the conditions of the porject are widening the existing lanes to three new lanes in each direction and install additional fourth and fifth lanes between some interchanges, set up an intelligent transport system, and reconfigure the freeway interchanges and ramps.

Thiess will also work on a $405 million contract from BHP Billiton for the remediation works at the Hunter River Remediation project, which involves remediation of river sediments affected by industrial activities of former Newcastle Steelworks at Mayfield.

The remediation project is due for completion in 2012.

Meanwhile, Thiess's company head Leighton Holdings has recently won a $1.1 billion deal in new contracts this month. The company is valued at $2.3 billion on its new projects.

The new deal is a six year contract extension which will expand its mining services at Mahakam Sumber Jaya coal mine in Indonesia.

Leighton Contractors Indonesia, a division of Leighton Asia, will expand its coal mining operations and is expected to generate at least 8 million tonnes of coal per yer.