Finance & Funding

Plans are being drawn up in Argentina for a new bridge that will connect Parana and Santa Fe. The project will be handled under the PPP model and involves the construction of a bridge and highway connection that is expected to cost US$650 million. The work will be carried out in three phases. South Korean contractor Hyundai has expressed strong interest in the project.

A new bridge is being built between Bangladesh and India. The bridge will span the Feni River and will provide an improved transport link between Ramgarh in Bangladesh and Chittagong in India. Piling work is already being carried out for the bridge supports and the project should be complete by the second quarter of 2020. Funding is being provided by the Indian Government.

Hungarian contractor Duna Aszfalt has won the tender for building a section of the M44 dual carriageway between Bekescsaba and Kondoros. The €133 million deal is for 18km of the M44. The other bidders were Strabag Altalanos Epito, Colas Hungaria with Colas Kozlekedesepito and a consortium including Pannon-Doprastav, Subterra-Raab and Domper. Békéscsaba is near the Romanian border with the M5 interchange at Kecskemét. Meanwhile, under the Rural Development Programme, the government said it will boost

The authorities in Poland plan to expand the country’s road network by a total of 3,268km by 2025. The Polish national road authority GDDKiA says that this plan is likely to cost some €31.61 billion. The road development plan will run until 2025 as part of Poland’s National Road Construction Programme. The road development work includes adding 252.2km of highways, 2,641km of dual carriageways and over 369km of ring roads. Poland has been steadily improving and expanding its road network and in 2017

Financing is being sought in Indonesia for a series of major infrastructure projects. In all the work is expected to require US$9.59 billion and is for six highway projects, with one in Kalimantan and five in Java. The project in Kalimantan is for the Bontang-Samarinda Highway. In Java the highway projects are for links from Cileunyi-Tasikmalaya-Cilacap stretching 183km, Bawen-Yogyakarta, Kamal-Balaraja-Teluknaga stretching 48.3km, Semanan-Balaraja stretching 31.7km and Semarang-Demak.

Paraguay increased its spending on road repairs during 2017. The country’s Ministry of Public Works and Communications (MOPC) spent around US$800 million on road repairs and maintenance during the first 11 months of 2017. The country aims to increase its budget for 2018 to $1 billion. The development work will see Paraguay increase its total network of surfaced roads from 5,000km to 7,650km by the time the current administration finishes its term in office.

Construction work is starting in Pakistan on the new E-35 Highway project.

India is setting out plans for major road development works in the 2018-2019 period. Highway building projects worth a total of US$9.25 billion are being planned. The work is being planned by India’s National Highways Authority (NHAI). Some 10,000km of national highways will be built in the time period. In all contracts for 25,000km of roads will be offered for tender.

STRABAG has won the tendering process for a €125 million expressway construction contract in Hungary. The package of works is for the construction of the R76 expressway in western Hungary. The contract will involve building an 8.6km section of expressway along with a number of overbridges and will take 36 months to complete. The work is being carried out for the state-owned firm NIF Zrt. This will be the first section of the R76 expressway, running from Zalaegerszeg to the M7 motorway and the work will incl