Finance & Funding

A new road project is now to be carried out in the German city of Ludwigshafen, The project involves the reconstruction of the Hochstraße Nord road. Approval for the work has been given by the German Federal Ministry of Transport, which is also providing €154.2 million for the project.

More road blockades are likely after Slovakia’s state motorway company NDS announced it will not tender for missing sections of the D3 motorway this year. Residents of some towns have blocked sections of roads this year urging the government to speed construction of the D3 to help; boost their local economies, according to Slovakian media.

In the latest round of applications for EU subsidies for road investments within the POPW programme for Eastern Poland, the province of Podlasie saw its projects among the most highly-rated. As a result, it is to receive almost PLN 400mn (EUR 93.59mn USD 110.06mn) of funding.

Two highway stretches in Sri Lanka may be sold to a Chinese company. The firm, Shangdong, is looking at purchasing the concessions for the Colombo-Katunayake expressway and the Colombo Outer Circular expressway in Sri Lanka. The two highways have a pricetag of around US$600 million. A substantial portion of the funding for the Colombo-Katunayake expressway, some $248.2 million, was provided by China’s Exim Bank while the remaining $45 million was provided by the Sri Lanka Government.

Rebuilding the A-121 route connecting St Petersburg with Sortavala in the Karelia Republic will commence soon. The project is costing US$118.5 million. The work will be carried out over a 20km stretch of the highway and involves widening the roadway so that it features two lanes in either direction. Completion is expected at the end of 2019 and the work will boost the capacity on the route to over 14,000 vehicles/day. The autonomous republic of Karelia remains part of Russia and borders with Finland,

The Ecuador Government plans to continue its programme of road network expansion and development. The country’s road network has seen the development of 1,137km of roads over the last 10 years. This has boosted the total network to 9,791km. Responsibility for investments and maintenance for 2,400km of roads will be given over to private firms over the next four years by the Ecuador Ministry of Transport and Public Works (MTOP). A number of road concessions have already been awarded to private firms, includi

Construction work on a new highway project in El Salvador will commence in early 2018.

The New Zealand Government is planning a road improvement programme worth a total of US$7.68 billion (NZ$10.05 billion). The plans will see 10 of the country’s busiest road links being classified of National Significance. A combination of financing from the National Land Transport Fund and public-private partnerships will pay for the various projects being included. One of the highways to be improved will be the Napier-Hastings highway in Hawke’s Bay, with it being widened to four lanes to boost capacity.

The New Zealand Government is planning a road improvement programme worth a total of US$7.68 billion (NZ$10.05 billion). The plans will see 10 of the country’s busiest road links being classified of National Significance. A combination of financing from the National Land Transport Fund and public-private partnerships will pay for the various projects being included. One of the highways to be improved will be the Napier-Hastings highway in Hawke’s Bay, with it being widened to four lanes to boost capacity.

UK exports of construction and earthmoving equipment continued its upward trend in Q2 of 2017, showing growth for the fourth consecutive quarter. Overall, Q2 2017 levels were the highest for two years, since Q2 2015, according to the latest quarterly report from the UK’s CEA – Construction Equipment Association. Exports in Q2 2017, increased by 5.3% in weight terms (tonnage of machines) compared with Q1 2017 and 2% in monetary terms, reaching nearly €777 million (£714 million).