Finance & Funding

A proposal has been made to extend a key stretch of Russia’s high speed highway network. The highway connecting Moscow to Kazan would be upgraded and also extended in a bid to improve transport and cut journey times. A new highway section would run from Kazan, in the Volga Region, to Yekaterinburg, in the Urals, with planning already underway. The project also calls for a new highway running from Kazan to Samara to the south. This route will bypass Togliatta and will include the construction of a new bridg

Construction of a new bridge spanning the Newman River is being planned for the city of Grodno in Belarus. The plans call for a former rail bridge to be adapted to carry motor vehicles, as well as building new interchanges and connecting roads to existing roads. The project is expected to cost close to US$174 million, with a portion of the funding possibly being provided by China. The work will require a connection to the M6 highway as well as the R99 road. Further work for the city includes a new bypass an

Plans are being drawn up for the link that will connect Mexico City International Airport (AICM) with Santa Lucia airfield. The new link between the terminals will be some 30km long. Various options are being considered, including an extension to the existing Viaducto Bicentenario highway and Chamapa-Circuito Exterior Mexiquense distributor road. A bus link with dedicated lanes and a light rail system are both being considered. The upgraded infrastructure to connect the two is expected to come with a price

A series of major toll road projects are being planned for Indonesia.

Lane Construction, the US subsidiary of Italy’s Salini Impregilo Group, has won a US$346 million design-build contract for the Interstate I-440/US 1 in North Carolina. Lane will be making improvements to the Interstate I-440/US 1 Wake County from south of Walnut Street to north of Wade Avenue. Around 10.5km of the highway - referred to locally as the Raleigh Beltline - will be widened from four lanes to six lanes. The work involves replacing pavement and bridges and upgrading interchanges and is expected

Nicaragua has revealed plans for its road development work to be carried out in 2019. The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure (MTI) has set a budget at US$168.3 million and the plan involves the construction of 210.5km of new road links. This is an increase over the 162km of new roads that MTI set as its plan for 2018. However the 2019 budget is lower than that set for 2018, so there have been questions as to how the target will be achieved.

Spanish construction group Rover Alcisa, through its Polish division RoverPol, will rebuild the Lekno Junction in the city of Szczecin. The multi-level intersection deal covering road and rail works - worth nearly US$35 million - is part of a major downtown bypass project. Szczecin, near the Baltic Sea and Germany, has a population of around 400,000.

Colombia is establishing an action plan for its infrastructure programme, focussing on sourcing suitable financing. The country’s national road institute, Invias, is looking for US$659.5 million to carry out a series of 26 road resurfacing projects. Work on these commenced as far back as 2004 but numerous stretches remain incomplete and it will take until 2022 for the surfacing operations to be concluded. Meanwhile another new division will oversee the La Linea Tunnel and Ruta Del Sol II projects. The form

A series of road development projects will be carried out in Siberia’s Irktusk Region. The programme of works will be carried out during the 2019-2024 period. Repairs will be carried out to 350km of roads while 200km of new roads will be constructed during the entire programme. In 2019 alone, the plan calls for 140km of roads to be rebuilt.

Uganda’s Jinja Nile Bridge is now open to traffic. Costing US$129 million in all, around $100 million of the funding was supplied by Japan in the form of a loan. The 525m-long bridge features a cable-stayed design, the longest of its type in Uganda and second longest in East Africa after the 680m-long Kigamboni bridge in Tanzania, which also recently opened to traffic. Egypt’s Suez Canal Bridge is the longest cable-stayed type in Africa, measuring 3.9km, followed by the 1.36km Lekki Ikoyi Bridge in Nigeria