Finance & Funding

A funding package from Japan will help pay for road upgrade work in Ghana. The US$57 million finance package will be used to pay for works in Ghana’s Ashanti Region and in the Central Region. In the Ashanti Region work will be carried out on the Bekwai-Anhwia Nkwanta-Kumasi road links, boosting connectivity for the country’s copper mining sector. Meanwhile in the Central Region, work will be carried out on the N8 route from Yamoransa to Assin Praso, helping to develop the local economy.

A new expressway project is being planned in Vietnam. The expressway will connect Soc Trang Province and Can Tho City to An Giang Province's Chau Doc city. Half of the necessary funding will be supplied by the Vietnamese Government, with development funding and private sources likely to provide the rest of the financing required. The 200km highway will feature two lanes in either direction and will cost some US$1.27 billion to build. Construction should start in 2024 and be complete in 2026.

A series of proposed infrastructure projects have been given approval in Thailand. Worth some US$213.3 million, the projects will be implemented in Udon Thani Province, Bueng Kan Province, Nong Khai Province, Loei Province and Nong Bua Lamphu Province. Transport infrastructure works being planned include a new port on the Mekong River and road works in Chiang Kan Province and Loei Province. In addition, a new 139km road will connect Udon Thani with Bueng Kan.

Bulgaria has earmarked €690 million to build a 134km section of the Hemus motorway between Boaza and the I-5 Ruse-Veliko Tarnovo road in the north. Around 170km have been built of the 420km Hemus Motorway, designated the A2. The motorway is divided into two sections with the first one running from the capital Sofia to Yablanitsa, crossing Stara planina - Balkan mountains. The second segment connects Varna, on the Black Sea coast, and Shumen, an inland city of around 80,000.

Romaina’s new Provincia Transilvania de Nord association for economic development will include road and rail projects. Provincia Transilvania – which starts operations in January – will allocate funds, especially for feasibility studies. The organisation has been championed by the Romanian counties of Satu Mare, Maramures, Bistrita, and Sala, according to Romanian media. Road projects include construction of a motorway between Satu Mare and Baia Mare as well as an orbital road system around Baia Mare.

Plans are being drawn up in Russia for the M-49 route in St Petersburg, a project which is expected to cost US$225.2 million. The new road will be built in St Petersburg’s Primorsky District, on the northern side of the city. The work is expected to help reduce peak time congestion in the city. The plans call for the road to be operated under an 11 year concession package. Much of the financing is being provided by the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), with the remainder being supplied by the First Eurasian

A 198km stretch of highway in northwestern Vietnam is to be upgraded. The route forms part of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Kunming-Hi Phòng Transport Corridor. A loan worth US$188 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will help pay for the work. The highway runs through a mountainous region and is important to Vietnam as it provides a connection between Hà Ni and China's Yunnan province. The work will improve the existing road connections and boost connectivity for Vietnam’s northern provinces

Russia plans to spend a record amount on developing its road and transport network for the 2019-2021 period. The country’s Ministry of Economic Development is setting a state financing budget of over US$84 billion. This is the largest sum that Russia has directed towards road spending over the last 10 years. One of the key projects will be the upgrading of the Kerch-Sevastopol highway, which is expected to cost $1.6 billion. New transport hubs for Murmansk and Novorossiysk as well as airports will also be

The highway of the future will not be a physical asset created and maintained by the construction industry … it will increasingly be seen as part of an emerging global services sector. “Every day we hear about Mobility as a Service (MaaS), but what about Roads as a Service?” says Christophe Nicodème, general director of the European Union Road Federation (ERF). “The role of the road is changing. We need to think much more carefully about planning (highway) infrastructure in terms of people’s needs. We must