Finance & Funding

Algeria’s Ministry of Public Transport is increasing the budget for the Bejaia highway project. An addition US$84.4 million has been secured for the project, which is being carried out jointly by the Chinese contractor CRCC and the local firm Sapta. The work on the highway is now said to be some 75% complete, with the project having cost $852.44 million. There have been some setbacks however and there has been resistance from locals in the area between Sidi Aich and Amizour. When the highway is ready it wil

Russia is looking to boost road safety through a combination of upgrades to existing infrastructure and revised standards. The aim is to cut crashes through targeting known hotspots for incidents. The programme will also tackle congestion in key areas. Data is being collated on the sections of road suffering the highst numbers of crashes and most serious congestion, so that these sections can be prioritised for improvements.

Construction work on the road connecting the Bolivian towns of Riberalta and Rurrenabaque has been halted. The project to upgrade Bolivia’s Route 8 is being carried out by a Chinese contractor. Work started on the project in 2014 and is supposed to be complete in 2020 but is said to be significantly behind schedule, with only 11% of the planned work having been carried out. The project is costing an estimated US$579 million of which the contractor has so far been paid some $220 million. The road link

Construction work on Colombia’s two key tunnel projects is being delayed, with insufficient funding proving a major challenge. Both the Toyo Tunnel and La Linea Tunnel projects are behind schedule. In addition, the project to construct the Pumajero Bridge is also being delayed due to a lack of funds.Part of the problems is that the designs for these projects have been revised as construction work has progressed. However the additional funds to pay for the new design features added have not been fully

The Vietnamese Government has given the go-ahead for work on a key section of the country’s North-South highway project. This 7.5km stretch of the route will run between District 2's National Highway 22 and Hiep Phuoc Industrial Park. The work will cost US$365.4 million to carry out as it includes building the Phuoc Kieng, No 1, Rach Dia and Ba Chiem bridges. Located just to the south of Ho Chi Minh City, the Hiep Phuoc Industrial Park is in a delta area, which will require the construction of the bridge se

A new highway interchange project will improve traffic flow in Abidjan, the economic centre for Côte d'Ivoire. The interchange will be constructed at the Akwaba intersection near the city’s Félix Houphouët-Boigny international airport. The Côte d'Ivoire Government has agreed a financing package with the World Bank (WB). This will be used for the Greater Abidjan Port-City Integration Project. The financing package will be worth close to US$300 million. In all, some $382.6 million will be needed to deliver

Austrian contractor Strabag has won a stake in a design and build road contract in Poland. The project is worth a total of €133 million and involves building a section of highway carrying three lanes in either direction. The firm will work on the project to build another stretch of the A1 highway in Poland. The 17km long Section C begins at the Kamieńsk junction and ends at Radomsko, where the construction of a motorway interchange forms part of the order.

Crushing equipment specialist Metso is now celebrating its 150th anniversary. The firm started in business in 1868 as a local ironworks and the firm has evolved through a series of mergers, acquisitions and divestments. It now has operations in more than 50 countries and a workforce of over 12,000. Metso is a global industrial company providing the world's mining, aggregates, recycling, and process industries with innovative solutions for the sustainable processing and flow of natural resources. During its

Financing has yet to be finalised for a series of road construction works in Paraguay. Loans are expected to pay for upgrade works to major road links. A loan of US$142.8 million is being sought from the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) and South American development fund Fonplata. Meanwhile a $90 million loan is being sought from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). And a further $200 million loan would also be sought from the IDB. Road projects to benefit from the funding would be for the