Heathrow Airport has produced a long-list of 65 potential logistic hub locations to serve as centres for off-site construction, selected from an initial 121 applications.

From these 65 locations, Heathrow will select four to be offsite construction and manufacturing hubs to support the airport’s expansion plans.

The long-list includes Laing O’Rourke, Balfour Beatty, Tarmac and Severfield.

Heathrow plans to use its £16bn expansion to drive growth in off-site construction across the UK. The new logistics hubs will pre-assemble components of the expanded airport before transporting them in consolidated loads to Heathrow. One of the benefits is seen as spreading the jobs created by the project across more communities. In April 2017 it invited bids to host the hubs as part of its supply chain management plans.

Heathrow chairman Lord Deighton said: “The third runway is not a London centric project – it is one we are opening up to the whole of the UK, asking for its skills and expertise to help build an asset this country so desperately needs to safeguard its future prosperity.”

Heathrow expects the hubs to “create a legacy of construction excellence in the UK for future generations”. The selection process is also expected to add force to the airport’s political influence.

Civil Engineering Contractors Association chief executive Alasdair Reisner said: “We are keen that the whole of the UK benefits from the expansion of Heathrow. We see huge potential for the logistics hubs to stimulate the growth of new industrial heartlands across the country, manufacturing and assembling the high-quality components used by contractors to build world class new facilities for Heathrow.”