One of the world’s largest construction and engineering companies has undergone a major restructuring in order to best capitalise on opportunities relating to a booming world infrastructure market.

Virginia-based Bechtel Corporation will combine its civil and most of its power businesses in order to better integrate its full suite of offerings into a single unit headed by current power boss Toby Seay.

Bechtel will also create a new Nuclear, Safety & Environment (NS&E ) unit to combine its government and commercial nuclear businesses.

In a statement, Bechtel’s chief executive officer Bill Dudley said the move will better serve the company in the training marketplace.

“Markets are changing and it’s crucial for us to adapt so that we can continue to deliver the world-class projects customers expect from us,” he said. “The cities and industrial areas of tomorrow increasingly will be designed and built with roads, airports, ports, rail, water systems, communications, and power integrated into an overall plan. The Infrastructure global business unit will be able to meet that need seamlessly.”

The development comes as companies around the world prepare to take advantage of a growing market for infrastructure, with strong growth in developing nations and an infrastructure deficit in some parts of the developed world expected to see the total value of built asset wealth increase from $US193 trillion in 2012 to $261 trillion by 2022, according to built asset consultancy Arcadis.

In Bechtel’s case, the firm has a strong presence in the key Middle Eastern growth market but not so much in Asia – another key growth market in which the firm will no doubt be looking to further exploit through its new unit.

The latest move follows Bechtel’s ranking by Engineering News Record last month as the third biggest international construction contractor anywhere in the world and the largest within the United States.

The 116-year-old company also recently entered its fifth generation of family board members in July when it appointed oil, gas and chemical boss Brendan Bechtel to the position of president and chief operating officer and as a member of the board.

The new infrastructure unit will operated through seven business lands and will include the company’s civil construction business in the Americas, EAM and Asia Pacific regions as well as water,  power, aviation and rail.

No redundancies or headcount reductions were indicated in the announcement.